


Timelines And Secrets

by darlathecyborgpluviophile



Category: Undertale
Genre: Blood and Violence, Body Horror, Demonic Possession, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, POV Second Person, Self Harm, Sharing a Body, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-05
Updated: 2016-05-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 09:54:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 29,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5924077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlathecyborgpluviophile/pseuds/darlathecyborgpluviophile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a few misunderstood children going on a journey for the ways to find the best possible ending, or, Chara gets a redemption arc.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue (Here We Are)

_In some sick way, it was almost funny; despite everything they had gained, all the wonderful care, the peaceful home, the loving family, there were still certain reminders and habits of their past that Chara could not beat. The particular habit of shaking whenever something upsetting or threatening happened was one such example._

_Chara sat on their bed, staring stubbornly at their trembling hands. They knew that the situation was under control. They knew that all of it had been a test, a mere prelude to their true plans. So why was their body reacting as if they were…scared?_

_It was true that poisoning Dad hadn’t been the accident they had made it out to be; Chara had needed a solid control test to determine if one could really get sick and die from eating the buttercups that grew in the garden. Dad had never died because of the quickness with which he was given over to doctors and the small amount of buttercups he ingested. But if, say, a child who was very good at keeping things secret ingested an inordinate amount of them….things might end differently._

_Despite their best efforts to keep it buried, deep inside of Chara something simmered and bubbled, causing them to feel almost bad for their Dad. They supposed it came from the same place within them that was causing the shaking. Remorse had apparently come calling, and despite their best efforts to push it back down where it came from, the feelings were only getting stronger as they sat on their bed, staring at their dirty, shaking hands._

_They knew it was all going to be worth it. This was the plan to get the best possible ending for everyone, and they had to follow it to the end, no matter the petty consequences._

_Something needed to be done about the shaking, they needed to take their mind off it somehow. Chara leaned back onto their bed, and reached into their pillowcase to find a folded piece of paper inside. Opening it, they were met with a cheerful title, as written by their brother in rainbow colors:_

**Chara and Asriel’s Awesome Plan To Save The World!!!**

_They smiled (though they didn’t really mean it) and continued reading. The next section of the paper was clearly written by a different person; in small, scratchy black lettering, was a numbered list:_

1) Poison self with buttercups.  
2) Die.  
3) Have Asriel take my SOUL and cross the barrier to the surface.  
4) Once there, ~~kill everyone in the village because they ALL DESERVE IT~~ collect six other souls.  
5) Stop by Mount Ebott on the way home.  
6) Break the Barrier.  
7) Make Mom and Dad proud.

_Below the short list were little doodles (in the same multicolored crayons as the title, contributed by both kids) of glorious triumph, smiles on both their parents’ faces, and a beautiful sunset, drawn by Chara themselves._

_Yes, they were mature enough to understand that the end clearly justified the means. Asriel had been hesitant to agree to the plan at first, but after a little wheedling he had seemed almost as eager as they were._

_They leaned their head back a little further and flipped to their left side. Their eyes fell upon the family photograph that sat on the dresser they shared with their brother._

_Everyone in the picture was smiling and happy. Chara still remembered the day it was taken very clearly; before the picture was taken, Mom had talked about how much hope them and Asriel had brought to the inhabitants of the underground, and both children had swelled with pride and joy at the thought. Now, however, with Dad still recovering, Asriel a bit more subdued than usual and themselves soon to be…leaving, all the happiness and wonder that photo held seemed like it had happened to another family, in another lifetime._

_Chara sighed and turned away from the picture to look up at the ceiling. There was_ no reason _to feel bad, they reminded themselves again; this was for Mom, Dad, Asriel, the whole kingdom._

You are the future of humans and monsters.

_The door to the bedroom opened as Chara stared into the space above them, and a timid voice spoke their name. They shot up from their bed and met the sad, tired eyes of their brother._

_He shut the door and walked further into the room._

_“Chara, I really,_ really _don’t think we should do this.”_

_Ugh, not this argument again. He already knew damn well why they should. “Asriel, we already discussed this, didn’t we? We’re going to do it.”_

_“B-but, you saw what those flowers did to Dad, didn’t you? It looks painful-”_

_“It’s the only way,” they said soothingly, sliding off their bed and clapping their hands around his shoulders._

_“But I don’t want you to die, Chara! I really love you-”_

_“I know you do, but you want our dream…..no, your dream to come true, don’t you?”_

_“W-well…yeah, but-”_

_“Then this is the only way.”_

_He didn’t say anything for a long while before whispering, “Do you_ want _to die?”_

_Chara froze, and Asriel refused to meet their gaze. Gently, they removed their hands from his shoulders and looked at the floor._

_What could they even begin to say to that?_

_He seemed to take their silence as a yes. “Is that why Mom won’t let you near the knife drawer anymore?”_

_Both of them were silent for a long time. Outside of the small bedroom, the unmistakable sounds and smells of Mom cooking drifted through the house. Dad was lightly snoring in the next room over. Chara latched on to any sound they could to avoid responding to Asriel. Eventually though, when they looked up and were met with those big, sad eyes, the words came out anyway._

_“I’m sorry, Asriel, but this is for everyone. It doesn’t matter if I die, think of everyone we’re going to save!” Chara paused momentarily, examining their brother and going over what they had just said. “Besides, I’ll get to live on inside you, right?”_

_Asriel looked like he was going to say something–a rebuttal, a concern, a firm_ no, I won’t do this _–but it died on his lips._

_“Alright.”_

_Chara released the breath they didn’t know they had been holding. “Good. Dad’s almost better, yeah?”_

_He nodded._

_“Great!” They sounded almost cheerful. The smile on their face was big and bright, though a more astute observer than Asriel would have noticed it didn’t quite reach their eyes. “C'mon, let’s go out to the garden and get started.”_

_They offered their hand to him._

_It took a moment, but he accepted it._


	2. Initial Heartache

It’s a relief to know that some of the monsters in the Ruins are kind, you think. You haven’t been shown genuine kindness in a long time, and it’s a wonderful and refreshing experience, even if the first two people you met down here were generally annoyed and downright murderous.

You sit in a pile of crunchy red leaves, clutching the bulky grey cellphone Toriel gave you close to your chest. It’s strange; while it’s true that Chara’s been on edge since Flowey’s surprise murder attempt, you thought that Toriel’s soothing, motherly love would calm them.

It didn’t.

They stand over by the entrance to the room Toriel left you in, arms crossed over their striped sweater. “What are you doing? We should get going,” they say impatiently.

“Sometimes,” you reply as softly as possible, “It’s good to stop and smell the flowers.”

Chara’s laugh is fake and empty. “Don’t you talk to me about ‘smelling flowers.’ Besides, there _are_ no flowers around here. Hopefully. The point is, your metaphor is invalid.”

“Sure,” you say, glancing off their words. You haven’t been with them long, but you already seem to have mastered ignoring some of their less-than-helpful comments.

“Look, I’m just trying to help you. That seems to be all I _can_ do now that you’ve woken me up.”

“I’m sorry,” you respond, not really knowing what else to say; you never were very good with words. “I didn’t know that would happen.”

“I don’t think it really matters,” they say, sliding down the wall and into a heap of slightly shimmering sweater on the floor.

You flip open the phone in your hand and start navigating through its menus. Investigating the confusing interface is tough with just arrow keys, and you find yourself getting frustrated fast. You’ve never seen a phone like this in your life.

“Huh?” Chara says, noticing what you’re doing and popping out of their momentary depression. “Are you gonna call her?”

You say nothing. You continue examining menu after menu that pops up.

“Frisk?” They ask, their voice slightly softer than usual. Contemplative. Still, you don’t say anything. In your peripheral vision you can see them stand and glide ghost-like over to you, less annoyed and more curious.

It happens all at once.

Everything goes dark and you feel like you’re being pulled roughly backwards, to where you don’t know. The wind is completely knocked out of you, and you can feel your body moving against your will. When you’re able to see again, you find that Chara is nowhere to be found.

Your fingers are clicking across the phone keys, whizzing through different screens until a simple seven digit number has been highlighted. You select it, and press the receiver to your ear. The cold metal and plastic of the old phone feels uncomfortable roughly pressed up against the side of your face like this, but no matter how hard you try you can’t move it away.

The dial tone stops, and there’s a clicking sound on the other end of the line.

“This is Toriel.”

No matter how much you try, you can’t stop just one word from tumbling out of your mouth.

“Mom?”

It’s a simple word, yes, but the way it’s said seems to carry so much depth and weight that you can’t help but gasp a little. Toriel seems to do the same.

“Huh?” You hear her say. “Did you just call me…'mom’?”

“Mmhmm,” they say, almost shyly.

“Well…I suppose…” She seems at a loss for words. “Would that make you happy? To call me…'mother’?”

“Yeah,” you feel yourself nod.

The experience of hearing your own voice and feeling yourself speak without specifically choosing to is surreal and more than a little scary.

“Well then,” Toriel says, releasing a breath. You can hear the smile on her face while she continues, “Call me whatever you like.”

By the time Toriel hangs up, you’re thrust back into your own body, struggling for air, and Chara is lying down in the leaves beside you. Once you’ve regained your breath, you slowly bring the phone down from your ear.

“D-did you just…use my body?” you ask, picking over your words.

Chara gives you the silent treatment.

“Was Toriel your mom?”

They shrug, and stare at the purple cavern ceiling. You lean back and stare at it with them for a few minutes.

“It must be hard for you,” you say eventually.

“Well, you know,” they respond, trying admirably to keep the emotion out of their voice. “I haven’t seen her in about sixty years, so you have to imagine it was kind of a shock.” They’re attempting to act vaguely humorous about the whole thing, but in the end it just makes them sound sadder.

You lean onto your elbow and look at them. “Why did you take me over like that? How?”

“I don’t really know, I just…I got frustrated watching you not know how to use the phone, and I really wanted to talk to mom, and it just kind of…happened. Heh, you’re lucky you’ve got such a strong SOUL, because once it realized I was possessing you, it kicked me out.”

You crinkle and crunch handfuls of the leaves around you; it seems to relieve some of the tension you have built up. “Please don’t do that again.”

Chara’s neutral expression twists into a mischievous smile. “Oh, I can’t guarantee anything.”

It’s the first time you’ve seen it, but the slightly playful smile seems to suit them, even if the words are a little frightening.

The beautiful sight of a SAVE point appears in between you and Chara, and you reach out to touch it, determination renewed.

 

 

*****

 

 

Toriel blocks the way.

Toriel blocks the way, and neither of you know what to do.

Chara barely speaks, obviously disturbed by the whole situation. Occasionally they’ll chime in with a status update on the fight, but unlike most of the smaller fights you’ve fought thus far, they are oddly silent. No commentary, no teasing of the options in your ACT menu, no shoulder angel-esque advice on how best to beat the monster in front of you to a pulp. They stand in the corner of the room, glaring at everything as the ensuing fight plays out.

You can still feel the fire burning on your skin as your SOUL splinters and cracks in front of you for the third time. A voice that you’ve never heard before calls Chara’s name, and nigh-instantly you’re back at the last SAVE point, still trying to catch your breath. The path back down to the basement feels like it gets exponentially shorter each time you have to travel it, and all too soon you’re back in the fray for a fourth time.

You narrowly dodge a jet of fire as it erupts from Toriel’s hands. Digging around in your pockets, you find a piece of candy which you pop into your mouth and chew quickly. It has just too little healing power to fully max your HP.

It’s her turn to fight, and she waves her hands again. You manage to run into one of the fireballs she spews, gaining a huge, burning gash in your shoulder.

In your hand is the Toy Knife, which you haven’t used once, and though you don’t want to, it may be the only way to get past this roadblock.

Chara seems to notice you eyeing the weapon and hesitantly moves out of their corner to whisper to you.

“Do it.”

You know that you can’t afford to stop paying attention to the veritable onslaught of attacks, but through it all you whisper back, “She’s your mom!”

Toriel seems to frown at your bizarre comment, hesitating a little.

“Do you think it really matters?” they ask. “Look, it’s obvious that flower was right. You’re going to have to _kill_ to avoid _being_ killed.”

Your turn again.

You painfully ache all over, and your HP is half gone. Digging around in your pockets you find nothing of use, turning them inside out to make extra sure you didn’t miss anything. You look at the dull, plastic knife that sits in your hands.

Experimentally, you swing at Toriel.

It doesn’t do much damage.

The fire starts again.

With the adrenaline running through your body you’re able to avoid almost all of the attack. You swing again and she’s obviously weakened, but it’s still not enough.

“I can’t do this,” you’re somehow able say through the pain.

Chara looks everywhere in the room but at the ensuing fight before saying, “Do you want me to help?”

You look at them, then back to Toriel and slowly nod.

It’s so sudden, just like before; you seem to be thrown into the back of your own dark mind, and you feel Chara move your body beyond your control.

If Toriel notices the change in behavior and stance, she doesn’t show it. Within just a few turns of expert dodging and swinging on Chara’s part, you see her collapse in front of you.

You’re back in control of yourself, and you can feel the wild pulsing of your SOUL as it remains stuck on the FIGHT button.

Slowly, after delivering her final warning, she crumbles to dust. For a split second, you see her SOUL shake and then shatter like yours did so many times.

The room is empty save you, Chara, and whatever lies beyond the ominous exit door ahead of the both of you.

“I’ve gotten stronger,” Chara says with a humorless chuckle. “Huh.”

You simply kneel there, Toy Knife still clutched tightly in hand, staring at the pile of off-white powder that used to be Toriel.

She gave you comfortable rest.

More food than you could eat.

Warm hugs.

Stories.

_And you just killed her._

“You shouldn’t feel bad,” Chara says, picking up on your evident shock and regret. “She wouldn’t let you through.”

You simply stare, clearly not placated.

“You wanna get home, right?” You nod in response, and they shrug. “Then it’s something that needed to be done. Sometimes people get in the way of your goals, and that’s just how it is. I’m glad you’re finally taking my advice, though.”

Chara’s voice drops in volume and pitch, but subtly; there’s not a huge difference, but just enough to be noticeable. “Besides, life can get ugly really fast. Death is pretty nice in comparison.”

……

“Frisk,” they say firmly. “We should leave.”

……

“I can’t possess you again, I’m not strong enough right now.”

When you get up, you stumble. You almost fall headfirst into the mound of dust, but Chara (somehow) is able to catch and steady you.

You stand again, this time walking forward.

The door to the rest of the underground is wide open, and warily, you and Chara step through it into whatever lies beyond…


	3. Trade-Off

“Pyrope bounds towards you!” Chara shouts, taking up their position as unofficial Battle Narrator. You smile and wave meekly at the Pyrope before opening your ACT menu and examining this encounter’s options. Chara peeks over your shoulder and reads them with you.

“Ugh, these ones are all lame,” they say, making a face. “You should just kill it.”

“I don’t really want to,” you respond while attempting to dodge some bomb-shaped bullets. “There’s no reason to be cruel unless I _have_ to.”

They moan, flumping to the ground dramatically. “Do it anyway!”

You ignore them and follow the instructions in your ACT menu, reaching over to the wall beside you and adjusting the temperature of the room.

“You crank up the thermostat,” Chara comments, still lying on the ground. Their head pokes up for a short moment so they can see the enemy’s reaction. “Pyrope begins to get excited.”

Pyrope _is_ excited, bouncing up and down and making exclamations about how hot it is. It makes you smile, even if his orange attacks sting. On your turn you reach over and adjust the temperature again.

Chara stands up, wiping their brow. “A bit much, Frisk? It’s super hot! Pyrope looks satisfied.”

Chara, on the other hand, doesn’t as you use the MERCY button to end this encounter.

“It’s not that hard,” they say as they trail behind you. “You just pick up the frying pan and you swing it. That’s it! It’s better than making friends with random people. Haven’t you ever heard of Stranger Danger?”

You let them babble on about how easy it is to kill, partially because you feel bad, and partially because you don’t really know what to say.

“C'mon, Frisk, why don’t you just-”

“Chara.”

You stop in your tracks, and gently bring your arm out to stop them too.

“What?”

You turn to face them. “I only want to attack in self-defense.”

They arch an eyebrow. “Is that so?”

“You saw with Toriel and Undyne. I’m only doing it if I can’t do anything else.”

Chara stares at you; their sharp, reddish-brown gaze is piercing, and your very SOUL trembles. The combination of the two feelings draws your eyes to your feet, and you end up mumbling your thoughts.

“What was that?” Chara asks. “I couldn’t hear you.”

You flinch a little and nod, still looking down. You raise your voice a bit. “I said, ‘why do you want to kill so badly?’”

That stops them. They look away too, at the gears lining the walls of the hallway. You’ve noticed that this is a habit of theirs when they’re afraid of a situation; look anywhere except at the immediate problem.

You shrug at their non-responsiveness and go back to walking. You pull out your phone to see if Alphys’ UnderNet account has updated, noticing a conversation she’s having with Papyrus. You giggle at the comments and attached pictures as you scroll through your feed. Chara is suddenly right behind you again trying to peek at the phone screen, your uncomfortable question momentarily forgotten.

“Huh? Huh? Wha- oh. You’re talking with _them_.” They say the word like it’s poison, and you can hear the eye roll in their voice.

You put the phone away and give them a look. “What’s wrong with Papyrus and Alphys?”

This time you’re able to actually see them roll their eyes. “Ugh, don’t get me started. I can’t believe you’re friends with such _nerds_.”

“Huh?” You can’t help but feel a little insulted. “I like them. They’re good people, and I like their taste.”

“Oh my god,” they say, covering their face with a hand. “You watch _Anime?_ Aren’t you like, what, eight?”

“Ten,” you correct, “And a little. I liked the Mew Mew Kissy Cutie adaptation while it was still on.”

“Oh my god,” they say again, continuing to cover their face with their hands. You continue walking and soon enough they follow suit, still too embarrassed to even see where they’re going. It makes you laugh a little, though you try your hardest to keep the snickers hidden from them.

“You know, there are some things I’m glad I missed by being dead for so long,” they say, voice muffled.

…Your eyes are starting to water.

The pair of you walk until you reach another puzzle, this time involving multiple platforms, heating vents, and buttons. Your phone buzzes and rings in your pocket, and when you pick up it’s Alphys telling you that she’s gonna be MIA for the next few rooms.

Great, so no help. This one looks pretty complicated, too. You take a deep breath and study the puzzle before you. You go ahead and give it a shot, Chara staying behind on the starting ledge and attempting to give advice.

“No, you’re supposed to-”

“Try going to the last platform!”

“Push the button again!”

“Turn left! No, to your other left, Frisk!”

After a few minutes of failed attempts they just growl and say, “Let me do it!”

You stop, and somehow are able to clumsily navigate your way back to Chara’s position.

“You sure you’ve got the strength?” you ask nervously.

“I’ve specifically been saving it, yeah.”

“On one condition, then,” you say, a hint of a smile reaching your face.

Chara sighs. “What?”

“Tell me why you want to kill.”

They fold their arms. “No.”

“Alright.” You sit down and swing your legs to let them dangle off the nearby ledge. “Then we’ll sit here.”

Chara growls again, and begins to pace petulantly.

The lava beneath you makes the whole room uncomfortably hot. You can feel specific waves of heat rising up and passing over your whole body, just making the already intense temperature feel worse. You suddenly wish you had brought something other than a sweater with you, even though you didn’t know you would be going on a journey like this at the time you ran off. Now that you think about it, the sweater didn’t even work very well in Snowdin either; you remember the heavy coat that Papyrus had insisted Sans give you so that you could focus more on solving puzzles instead of retaining your body heat. It now lays in one of your phone’s dimensional boxes, due to it getting soaked back in Waterfall.

Despite Chara not giving you any information, you’re glad you decided to sit here for a moment; you were able to ascertain that you have terrible taste in clothing. Hindsight’s 20-20, you suppose.

After this train of thought concludes, Chara finally sits beside you, feet also dangling near the lava. It takes another few minutes before they’re willing to say anything, but eventually they’re able to offer up an, “I’m tired.”

As not to be rude, you turn your attention to them. They decide not to do the same, instead staring at their fiddling hands.

“Tired of being stuck in this…limbo. I was perfectly fine with being dead, and now that I’m somehow _tied_ to _you_ I don’t know how to get back to that.” They pause to take a breath and think. “I know that killing monsters gives one power, it makes one stronger. I was just thinking…maybe with enough LOVE I might be able to bring myself to die again?”

They bow their head low and rub their neck with both hands. “O-of course, I don’t know. I’m just guessing.”

Your SOUL trembles again, this time in a more violent and urgent manner. Your body starts to tremble for a minute too, and you thump your chest, trying to get it to stop.

“What are you doing?” they ask, bringing their head up and looking at you for the first time in the conversation.

You don’t look at them back, just shake your head and stand. Soon enough your SOUL quiets down again, and you feel much better.

“It’s nothing,” you say, wondering what it means when that happens. “You can do it now.”

Chara gives you a weird look. “Really? That’s all you wanted?”

“Not really, but I’ll let you go for now. It seemed like it was kinda hard for you to say that.”

Their puzzlement deepens slightly, but it’s also combined with…..relief? Soon enough they move into your body.

From the back of your mind you watch as Chara is able to expertly navigate the puzzle; it turns out they really _did_ know what they were doing. As soon as they’ve landed, everything shifts and you’re piloting your body normally. Chara seems winded, so you reach out to grab their hand and help stabilize them.

“Woah, no, I’m not holding hands with you,” they say, catching their balance and righting themselves on their own.

“Why?” you ask, once again feelings a little hurt.

They don’t speak for a minute, chewing over their words.

“Because you’re so _nerdy_ ,” they say, obviously teasing.

You laugh and give them a little shove. Surprisingly enough they laugh back, and the two of you are on the road again.


	4. The First Reset

Flowey is the easiest kill you’ve made this far.

Using the Worn Dagger you used to beat back his God form, cutting him down while he’s a simple flower is a breeze. A slice to the face, a slice to the stem, and an ordinary plant lies before you. It comes so quickly and easily that you don’t quite realize what you’re doing until he’s already dead and Chara’s patting you on the back.

“Nice job; I didn’t even have to prompt you that time.”

After it all, even after how easily you struck him down, their words shock you to your core. It’s not so much that you feel bad about killing _him_ ; he obliterated your SAVE, tortured you mentally, and you’ve lost count of how many times he killed you, but….

What if that had been anyone else, beaten and damaged and in your way? The fact that you’re capable of such mindless cruelty shocks you, hard.

Chara points out the entrance (or exit?) at the end of the room and speaks, jolting you out of your thoughts.

“Come on, let’s go see what happens next.” They nudge you slightly. It takes a moment, but you’re able to shake yourself out of your shock long enough to step towards and through the doorway, only for everything to go white. Reflexively you close your eyes against the brightness, causing a light show to go off under your eyelids. As suddenly as it became white it all goes dark, and you start to realize that you don’t know what you’re doing or where you are. Are you walking? Are you standing? Are you running?

You feel nothing. It’s almost like you’re floating here in this blackness.

You want to call out to Chara, but your voice doesn’t seem to work; whether this is because of the Barrier’s magic or because you can’t quite work up the will to speak, you don’t know.

Suddenly though, your phone rings. You manage to fish it out of your pocket by feel alone, and when you pick up, it’s a deep and gravelly voice you recognize.

You try to say something to Sans, but it’s no use; you can’t communicate with a voicemail. He must have tried to call during the Flowey fight, when the phone was glitching and behaving oddly (due to the circumstances). As he finishes his update on what the underground’s like now that you’ve apparently left, the phone slips out of your hands and into the inky blackness surrounding you, never to be seen again.

Is this death?

Is this life?

Is this another reality warp or illusion created by Flowey?

You simply _exist_ , there in the deafeningly silent darkness. Distantly, you wonder where Chara has gone. Perhaps once you passed through the door ahead of Flowey’s remains, they were able to go back to death like they had wanted.

……

Is this it?

……..

“No.”

Chara is suddenly floating in front of you, their green and yellow sweater unbearably bright amidst the black. They’re staring at you, almost trying to see through you.

“This isn’t all there is.”

Finally, your voice works.

“What do you mean?”

They nod towards you. “Open your menu.”

You bring up your main menu, the world around you pausing momentarily as it pops up in your mind. It takes you just a minute to realize that it’s actually not your main menu at all- it’s your SAVE file, all cracked and destroyed because of Flowey’s intervention. The glowing words ‘FILE ERASED’ stand amidst the fractures, and just below are two options: CONTINUE and TRUE RESET.

You attempt to select the CONTINUE button, but all that happens is the SAVE sparks a little.

“Chara,” you say, closing the menu, “What happens if I RESET?”

They shrug. “You go back to the beginning, probably.”

“Beginning…?”

“When we woke up down here, in the Ruins.”

You blink. You always thought that your ability to seemingly manipulate space-time through SAVES was a little strange, but this is a whole new level…

“Will I remember what happened on this journey? Will anyone else?” you ask. The thought of putting everyone through the same chain of events again seems selfish and a little scary.

Chara throws their hands in the air, exasperated. “I don’t know! Do you always remember what happens before you have to restore a SAVE?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, does anyone else?”

“Um, I don’t think so…”

“Then let’s try it.”

You look at them for a moment, and they look at you.

To RESET…to reverse everything you’ve done…will it even work?

After thinking on it, you nod. You know you have nothing to lose, after all. You re-open the menu, and select the TRUE RESET.

 

  
*****

 

  
When you open your eyes, you see gold. Your face is resting in something mushy and cold and unfamiliar, but the back of your head seems strangely warm. Slowly, _hesitantly_ , you push yourself upwards.

Sure enough, you’re sitting on top of a soft bed of golden flowers in the Ruins, a sliver of genuine sunlight shining down from where you fell, and Chara standing at your side.

“Everything okay?” they ask, looking down the room and at the large, ornate door at the end.

You rub some dirt off your face and take a deep breath.

“I think so.”

“Good.” Chara reaches out to help pull you up, and you accept. As soon as you’re standing, they take a long, quizzical look at the hand they used to pull you to your feet. For a while you allow them to stare before curiosity and concern overtake you.

“Hey,” you say, waving your own hand in front of their face. “What’s going on?”

They quickly shove their hands in the pockets of their shorts and smile - _actually smile_ \- at you.

“Nothing. Things are great!” They’re beaming, and your SOUL shakes. You’re almost thrown to the ground by the violence with which it rocks your whole body.

“What happened?” they ask, picking you up again.

“Nothing. I’m okay.” You’re lying, of course, trying to brush off the slowly accumulating dread in your mind. You think you have a hunch as to why that happens sometimes, but with Chara who may be the _key_ to your _happiness_ standing before you, you don’t even want to consider it. “What are we gonna do now?”

“Dunno,” Chara says, turning their attention back to the door at the end of the room. “Maybe we killed the wrong people?”

“Maybe,” you nod. “Do you think we should try not killing anyone?”

They scoff and roll their eyes, yet don’t seem particularly annoyed. “Come on, Frisk, you know how this world works, don’t you? Besides, It might not be possible to spare some of the people in those fights. But…if we kill all the _right_ people…”

They _wink_.

“…maybe we could get a better ending.”

You take a breath. As much as you would hate to admit it, the logic seems fairly sound…and besides, with your power to SAVE and new found ability to RESET when you’d like, making sure that nothing stays permanently if you don’t want it to…

“Alright.”

Chara nods emphatically, and leads you towards the entrance to the rest of the Ruins. They look natural smiling like this, even if something does feel a little _off._

But none of that matters.

You start again.


	5. Judgement

Light streaming through the windows in the hall give off the impression of sunset, though despite how convincing an effect it is, you know that Asgore’s Castle is just as far away from the sun as the rest of the monsters’ world. There’s a SAVE point and a Box near the doorway and as you overwrite your previous SAVE file, you get a glance at the title of the room you’re in: The Final Hallway. It’s very climactic sounding. You remember the first time you passed through here; the place had scared you then, simply because you didn’t know what awaited you in the future. Now that you do, you assess your feelings…but nothing comes of it. You’re completely ambivalent towards this golden hall and everything that happens in it and after it. It’s actually strange to think that you used to be surprised by all of this.

You can still hear the distant melodies and voices of the storytelling monsters echoing from streets and buildings in New Home and the dark walkways of the castle, but no one is in the sunset colored hallway. Yet.

You check that Chara is with you, (they’re almost fuming; they’ve never liked this particular scene, much less this particular person) and the two of you walk down past the stained glass windows and the mighty pillars to a central area. A familiar hooded figure appears in the shadows. He doesn’t move from his position, intent on staying hidden in the black.

Somewhere else in the castle (or in the city) a bell rings. Three times it chimes, and the hooded figure speaks.

“So, you finally made it. The end of your journey is at hand. In a few moments you will meet the king. Together…you will determine the future of this world. That’s then. Now. You will be judged. You will be judged for your every action. You will be judged for every EXP you’ve earned. What’s EXP? It’s an acronym. It stands for…”

Perhaps Chara’s rubbing off on you, or perhaps going on this journey over and over and over again has truly changed you, because you start skipping through chunks of the monologue. It’s uninteresting and routine after the first few times of being forced to hear it, and you’ve already memorized everything he has to say on the topic of leveling up. There isn’t a point in listening any more.

You don’t understand why he would show up this time anyway; you only killed a single person. It had been Chara’s idea to try killing only once per timeline to see if it resulted in a different, happier ending than killing multiple people in one run. It doesn’t feel wrong; the sacrifice of one to save many seems paltry.

…Doesn’t it?

“Now, you understand. It’s time to begin your judgement. Look inside yourself. Have you really done the right thing? And, considering what you’ve done…What will you do now?” The hooded figure gestures towards you. “Take a moment to think about this.”

After so many timelines, the words have almost lost meaning. You stand there, soaking up the silence, but in no way gleaning any insight or wisdom from it. You really did used to value this moment of your journey in earlier runs, but now it just serves as a waste of your time.

You _are_ starting to sound a bit like Chara. That’s not a fun thought.

The silence finally ends after what feels like an eternity, and the hooded figure reveals himself to be Sans. “Truthfully, it doesn’t really matter what you said. All that’s important is that you were honest with yourself. What happens now…we leave up to you.”

You subtly sigh in relief, glad the scene is over, but instead of retreating back into the shadows to teleport god knows where, Sans stays put. His gaze flickers from your face to Chara’s for just a moment, but (like everyone else) he doesn’t seem to notice their presence. Ironically, despite being asleep most of the time you see him, he looks exhausted. He takes a deep breath, and _continues speaking._

Hope swells in your chest amidst swirling boredom–could this really be the one? The timeline, the run, the _one instance_ where you have made the right decisions and can now truly free everyone? New dialogue could mean anything. You perk up a bit and pay attention, excited about what he might say next.

“Though…one thing about you always struck me as kinda odd. Now, I understand acting in self-defense. You were thrown into those situations against your will,” Sans throws his hands up and shrugs, “But…sometimes…you act like you know what’s gonna happen. Like you’ve already experienced it all before. This is an odd thing to say, but…if you have some sort of special power…isn’t it your responsibility to do the right thing?”

The hope rising within you falters a little, but it doesn’t fail completely. This wasn’t what you were expecting him to say at all. You can’t even tell if he means good or ill by it. But the possibility, the chance that maybe you’ve done _something_ right for once still remains, even if he strangely does seem to know about your powers.

Chara elbows you. “Yes, say yes.”

You nod, “Yes.” Surely it’s the right answer.

Sans shoves his hands back in the pockets of his coat, and his ever-present smile grows a little wider. “Ah, I see.”

You smile too, glad that you answered correctly. You even let your chest swell with pride a little–until his expression grows tight and vapid, and the blue lights in his sockets die out completely leaving only hollow, tired eyes and a strained grin behind.

“T h e n  w h y  d i d  y o u  k i l l  m y  b r o t h e r ?”

You blink and he’s gone, not even having moved back into the shadows of the pillars to take his ‘shortcut’.

The hope you had mustered drains from your bosom and into your gut where it sits and goes sour. Before long you start to feel nauseous. A creeping, numbing sensation begins to crawl over you, and you stand there bathing in the artificial light cast through the stained glass windows.

Chara stalks ahead of you, glare obviously on their face. You hear them muttering insults about Sans under their breath, but you can’t make out any specific phrases. They turn to look at you and their glare softens a little when they see you standing as still as a statue. You raise your head up to meet their warm look, only for it to harden back into a glare. They look away and at the tiled floor.

“Are you okay?” they ask, making a show of being annoyed. In any other context you’d giggle and point out how ‘tsundere’ they’re acting, but after this Judgement you feel…numb. Numb and exhausted. It’s fitting; you feel exactly how Sans looked.

How _your_ actions _made_ him look.

Without even responding to Chara’s question, you bring up your menus and find the RESET button.

This run hadn’t been very fun anyway.


	6. Pointe Shoes And Quiet Water

The only thing you can say is that even after so many resets, after so many times of actively choosing to relive the same things over and over again, you always manage to find solace in Waterfall.

It’s the most beautiful place you’ve ever been, underground or otherwise. The sound of rushing water echoes through the caverns, giving off an air of serenity, the beauty of the sparkling ‘stars’ leaves you agape, and the variety of swampland plants (even if they’re noisy sometimes) is wonderful. It all provides an atmosphere of peace, which is something you need right now.

You still haven’t recovered from what Sans said to you during your last Judgment. His words echo in your mind and rattle around like dice in your skull.

_Isn’t it your responsibility to do the right thing?_

_Isn’t it?_

_Isn’t it my…_

_Isn’t it our…_

Despite what Sans may think, you had not taken any pleasure in killing Papyrus. You had only done it because you thought it _might_ lead to a happy ending, and after discovering that it didn’t, you silently promised yourself and Sans that you would not so much as touch him again. Of all the monsters in the underground, you know Papyrus is the least deserving of death. But the fact that you went through with it anyway, despite your better judgement…

You slump down under a sign at the end of a long stretch of marsh to rest. Chara waits beside you. You expect them to get upset and start telling you off for ‘wasting time’ but after a few minutes they end up sitting down too.

“Tired?” they ask.

You nod. “Yeah. Really tired.”

“You should have gotten more rest at Mom’s, she would have let you stay longer.”

“It’s not really…” you begin, not knowing how to continue. “…It’s not _that_ kind of tired.”

Chara doesn’t respond, but you know they understand your meaning. The two of you sit and watch the nearby reeds swaying in the draft, and listen to the rhythmic noise of water…well, falling.

The Echo Flowers continuously talk to each other.

_“…hmm…if I say my wish…You promise you won’t laugh at me?”_

_“Of course I won’t laugh!”_

_Pause._

_“Someday, I’d like to climb this mountain we’re all buried under. Standing under the sky, looking at the world all around…That’s my wish.”_

_Laughter._

_“…hey, you said you wouldn’t laugh at it!”_

_“Sorry, it’s just funny…That’s my wish too.”_

……

“Chara…”

“Hmm?”

“You’ve been…around for a while, right.” In your head it’s a question, but when it comes out of your mouth it’s a statement.

“What do you mean?” they ask, starting to get defensive. “Where is this going?”

You shake your head. “You came here, lived here, and died here in 201X. Then you stayed dead for…how long was it?”

“About…” They count off some numbers on their fingers, “Sixty years, I think.”

“Sixty years,” you repeat. “And you woke up in spirit form when I fell on your grave.”

“Yeah? Look, Frisk, what’s your point?”

“My point is,” you say, eyes traveling to the glistening petals of the nearby flowers, “Did you know the kids who had that conversation?”

“What conversation?”

“The one that’s been recorded by these Echo Flowers.”

Realization dawns on Chara’s face, and they smile. Though it’s small, you can tell that it’s genuine.

“Oh, yeah, I did.” They chuckle, a rare occurrence for them. “It was my brother and I.”

You shift to get a better look at their face. “Really?”

“Yeah,” they say. “It happened so long ago. It’s really strange to hear it every time we pass through here. I don’t know how the Echo Flowers remembered it for so long…it’s a little hard to believe that nothing was recorded over it.”

“Maybe someone’s been repeating the conversation back into the flowers when it gets overwritten,” you muse. Your emotionally exhausted state seems to have given you a strange outlook on things.

Chara looks at you, an eyebrow arched. “The only two people who knew about the conversation are dead, why would…” they trail off, leaving both of you in a silence which turns out to be less awkward than you expect.

“Chara, why did you come down here?”

“Into the underground?”

“Yeah.”

They hug their knees and lean their head against the wall behind them. “I don’t know if I feel comfortable talking about it.”

“Alright.” You pause to think. “Did Asriel know?”

“Of course!” they say, the sliver of genuine smile returning. “We told each other everything. We were closer than close…he knew a lot of things about me that not even Mom and Dad knew.”

“That sounds really nice.” The next part is quieter, “I wish I had someone like that.”

“It _was_ nice. But, you know,” they brush a finger under their nose, “The rest is history.”

“Of course,” you say, the already soft words fading into a whisper.

The two of you sit soaking up the ambiance. For once, it’s a perfect moment–despite everything, you feel at peace. Your mind begins to drift to the person you’re planning to kill this timeline, but you pull it away.

Chara and you and the underground, all in perfect harmony.

But perfect harmony doesn’t last forever. Here in your strange melancholic mood, you realize that Chara is a perfect example of that. Looking at them right now, even in the dim light, you see a fuller picture of them than ever before. You see the wistfulness present in their expression. The way the sleeves of their sweater are fraying. The even cut of their chin length hair, though at present styled with a lot of care, has patches of uneven layers and jagged cut marks like someone outright _attacked_ it with a pair of scissors. The rosy red dimples on their cheeks. The scars lining what you can see of their arms and legs, reminders of whatever horrific things that have happened to them. You notice their russet colored eyes were meant for gazing in wonder and lighting up in joy, not for glaring and eye rolling.

You get your first, mostly complete look at your constant companion, and it’s in that moment that you feel so, _so_ sorry for them. Awful things must have happened in their past for them to be so broken and insecure and not who they _could be._

You look down at yourself for a comparison. There’s a similar striped sweater that hides your own scars, the old, pink tutu you always wear in Waterfall (it being the best armor you can get this far), and a pair of pointe shoes soon to be covered with dust.

The dust from your next victim, Un-

You stop your train of thought right there. The moment is serene, you remind yourself, let it stay serene.

“I miss Asriel,” Chara says, interrupting the silence. “I miss him a lot.” Their voice cracks a little bit on the last two words, and they turn to look at you before continuing. They notice your staring and shift from sad to annoyed, dropping their thought about their brother like a bar of soap. “What are you doing?” they ask, irritation starting to bleed into their words. “First you stare at me, and now you’re staring at your shoes.”

You don’t say anything.

“What’s up with you?”

“Chara,” you start, sighing. You run a hand through your messy hair. “Chara…I think…”

Something burns in your chest, the familiar feeling of Determination welling up in you.

Chara was never _meant_ to be like this. They were never _meant_ to have this terrible attitude about the world. Maybe, just maybe, it might be possible to change their mind about this, and allow them to seek peace and healing instead of violence. There is _good in them_ , you know it.

…The only problem is that you don’t know how to go about unlocking it.

“You know, it’s nothing.”

Chara is unsatisfied with your response. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why were you staring at me?”

“I’m sorry,” you say, wiping some of the sweat from your hands onto your tutu. “I was just thinking.”

Chara settles down again, much to your surprise. “Well, have fun with that.” They close their eyes and lean back to listen to the Echo Flowers babble.

The two of you sit there for a while longer, and at some point you doze off. When you wake up, your muscles are sore from staying in one position for so long, and you have to stand and stretch your legs. Chara (being a spirit) has no physical matter, so when you get up they simply open one eye and speak.

“You done with that break?” they ask.

You roll your neck. “Yeah. I think I’m ready to get going.”

Then the most surprising words of all come out of Chara’s mouth:

“I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

Afterwards it seems even _they’re_ shocked and disturbed that they said something like that.

They stand up while you’re making sure you have everything. As the two of you move onto the next room, you catch a glimpse at the sign you had been resting under…

**_However, there is a prophecy. The Angel…The One Who Has Seen The Surface…They will return._ **

**_And the underground will go empty._ **


	7. The Twentieth Reset

When you open your eyes, you see gold. Your face is resting in something mushy and cold, but the back of your head feels warm. Somewhere above you, a voice is chattering away about…something. The pitch and tone is vaguely familiar, and you realize it must be important. You push yourself upwards.

“-really, we’ve tried so much, don’t you think, Frisk? Twenty times, _twenty shots at this_ and we still haven’t figured out the right way to do it. Isn’t that bizarre?”

You’re feeling groggy, but you manage to sit up and see Chara, who’s awaiting some kind of response from you.

“Um…yes?” you guess. You clutch at your head. Perhaps there’s a physical drawback, an unsafe aspect to this whole ‘resetting time’ thing. Especially since…how many times has it been now?

“Twenty times,” Chara says again, a triumphant, almost mocking smile on their face. “You know…Frisk…I think it’s time we tried something a little different.”

Something inside you lights up. You had never worked up the courage to tell them before, but maybe now’s your chance to convince them that kindness is the correct choice in this world. Maybe you can finally start unlocking that peace and good that you know is in them somewhere.

“Yeah?” you say, still a little dazed. You stand up. “I agree, we need to change things, Chara.”

“Right!” The smile they have on their face stirs up something like fear in your SOUL. It trembles under their shockingly happy gaze, in turn making your body tremble. Though, on second thought, that could just be how fast you stood up after the RESET.

“Frisk…what do you think about killing a lot of people in one timeline?”

Your blood runs cold.

“What?” The dizziness you had is back in full force and affecting you worse than before. “How many?”

Their voice drops in volume, but the bright smile remains. “All of them.”

You instinctively start backing away from Chara in shock and fear. It’s too early in a timeline to be dealing with this sort of thing. _“What?”_

“Oh come on,” they say, rolling their eyes in a playful manner. “It’s not that different from what we’ve been doing already, is it? It’s not like you’re completely opposed to murder. Besides, you can always RESET,” they start showing teeth in their grin, “so what’s the big deal?”

“The big deal,” you stop backing away and force yourself to hold your ground, “Is that I’m not committing _genocide_ for you, Chara! Even with the power to RESET the timeline, I’m not doing it! Chara, I…”

The realization of what you’re about to do dawns on you, and you’re frightened to your core.

What will they say to your proposal?

You shake your head. No. You have to be courageous. You’re making your point no matter what.

“…I actually think that the answer is kindness.”

Chara’s evil grin falls.

 _“Kindness?”_ They over enunciate the word and then stay silent, prompting you, daring you to continue.

You take the opportunity. “What if we didn’t hurt anyone? What if we went around using MERCY on every single monster? That could get us our ending, Chara. Kindness could change-”

“What?” they interrupt, words dripping with insincerity and a venom that you’ve never heard from them before. “That _kindness_ could change everything? Do you really believe that, Frisk? When have you ever been shown enough _kindness_ by anyone for it to change anything, huh? Surely not your parents.”

You wince at that comment.

“No, really, maybe you have a point here. Was it when you first met Toriel, and she burnt you to a crisp over and over and over? What about when Papyrus forcefully attempted to capture you? Or when Undyne tried to impale you repeatedly?”

You don’t like confrontation, but you find yourself raising your voice a little bit to attempt speaking over them.

“Chara, please, if you would just stop and listen-”

“I don’t have to!” they yell over you. “I tried _kindness,_ Frisk. That was my goal, to end everyone’s needless suffering through _kindness,_ and it didn’t work! Asriel tried it, on the surface, and he was murdered! The entire kingdom lost hope, and my family was torn apart by people being _‘kind’_. There’s nothing else we can do, okay? There are literally no other options, Frisk! I have to do this!”

You start to realize that they’re not talking to you anymore.

“I have to do this! It’s the only solution. It’s…it’s the only way to rest.” They look up, their eyes glassier than usual. “It’s the only way.”

You look at them. Physically, they’re in the same room as you, but mentally they couldn’t be farther away.

You approach them and silently offer a hug. After a moment they seem to notice your presence, and while their body instinctively recoils from your offer, something in their faraway eyes betrays that. However, despite the flicker of resistance, they stick to their gut and stay away from you.

The two of you stand in silence. You want to fight their mentality, you really do– you want to contest and convince the hurt, bitter, dangerous part of them that it’s okay, and that they don’t have to let that anger and sadness overtake their whole being. But it’s just not something you have the power to do right now.

“Okay,” you finally say, “Okay.” You unfold your arms. “But I’m not killing everyone in one run. I’m not doing it.”

“Fine.” Chara still refuses to meet your gaze. “But I’m not using MERCY on everybody in one run.”

It’s a stalemate. As long as neither of you budge from your respective morals, nothing is going to change. At least you have a longer amount of time to convince them that they don’t have to kill. Maybe this stalemate will prove to be beneficial in making them see your perspective by the end.

Or…maybe vice versa…

You swallow. No, you can’t do that. You cannot give in. But, it does make you think.

“Why can’t you just possess me and make me kill everyone?” you ask, worried that you may have given them an idea.

“I’m not strong enough for that. My power over you isn’t as potent as it could be because of how little you kill on a regular basis. I might be able to clear the Ruins, but as long as you were fighting me, beyond that…” they trail off, but then their gaze snaps to your face. “Don’t get any smart ideas. If you attempt to pull off your pacifist schtick, all I’ll need to do is borrow your body for a single fight and it’ll be ruined.”

“Okay,” you nod. You swallow, but there isn’t much moisture in your mouth. “Right.”

“So,” they say, sighing. “I guess we should get going now that that’s out of the way.”

“Yeah,” you chuckle a little bit. It’s not actually funny.

What a mess.

You start again.


	8. Dating Tense!

With the smooth jazz in the background, the candlelight at your table, and the roses in the vase next you just starting to lose their petals, the atmosphere could be considered almost romantic, if not peaceful. A plate of untouched spaghetti and meatballs sits in front of you, still warm, (lately you haven’t had much of an appetite) while your companion has already demolished the strange ‘deconstructed’ hot dog that the hipster chefs at the MTT Resort Restaurant made for him.

Chara sits between the two of you, bored out of their mind and upset about having to sit next to someone as ‘bizarre’ and 'slobbish’ and 'gross’ (their words, not yours) as Sans. You find it strange that the past ten or so timelines he’s been bringing you to a table with three chairs instead of your previously usual two. Once, you had confronted him about it, and he had responded with a simple, “what? i like this table. we’re gonna sit here.”

You never brought it up again.

“hey,” he says, putting down his knife and fork, “let me tell you a story.”

Ah, yes, story time! In the past, this was a scene that you used to care about, but now that you’ve lost count of how many times you’ve heard the story _and_ how many times you haven’t, it’s an annoyance.

“so, i’m a sentry in the snowdin forest, right?…”

Your mind drifts away from his speech and to other, more pressing matters.

Fifty times.

Fifty times now, and you still haven’t been able to crack Chara.

You wonder what their goal is that it can only be accomplished with the sacrifice of most people in the underground. Is it something you can help with? Something you can change? Can it even be fixed with the kindness you talk about so often?

You’re suddenly reminded of your first time through Hotland, and the discussion that the two of you had, sitting on the ledge of a puzzle.

 _“I’m tired,”_ they had said. _“Tired of being stuck in this limbo.”_

Well, while that was something you could undoubtedly relate to at this point, you don’t know how to fix it. Would killing yourself free Chara? No, probably not; you know you don’t want to die, and so your instinct to return to the last SAVE Point would kick in before you could stop it.

Is it possible to kill them?

You shake yourself out of your thought and look at Chara. No, they’re clearly spirit…they can barely interact with you physically, much less experience death a _second_ time.  
You turn your attention back to Sans, who’s in the middle of his story. Only…

Despite the words coming out of his mouth with the same tempo and cadence as usual, you can tell something’s off. Determined to find it, you drop your previous train of thought and take the moment to study him.

He seems the same as ever.

Same big, hollowed out eyes with flickers of icy blue filling in as pupils, same vacant, inane smile, same bald skull, same-

Wait.

You flip back through your memories to the first few timelines where you met Sans. You play back the first time you met in the forest, the first time you ate with him at Grillby’s, the first time this very scene happened–he had looked so…happy.

You compare the Sans in your memory to the Sans in front of you. He had looked so much more joyful then than now. The smiles and chuckles then had been genuine, and he had always clearly been thrilled whenever you had fallen for one of his practical jokes. 

You look at him, _really_ study him in this moment as he tells you his story (he’s just gotten to the bit about leaving Toriel’s door for the first time). The outlines of his sockets are drooping, evoking a similar feeling to bags on a human face, so you know he hasn’t been sleeping well. His smile is a bit bigger than usual, but it doesn’t light up his whole face like it used to. Instead, the longer you look at it, the less safe and happy you yourself feel. Not seeing anything else to note in his face, you close your eyes and focus on his voice.

“-she said, 'if a human ever comes through here, will you promise me something?’”

His voice is much less energetic than you remember. There’s no smile evident in his tone. He sounds hoarse, flat and…

Tired.

It’s a special kind of tiredness that you’ve only learned to recognize since falling underground and going on this journey over and over. It’s the same tiredness that Chara shows and talks about. The same tiredness you feel every time you wake up face first in their grave. This same feeling is so evident in Sans’ voice that you open your eyes and jump up from your seat, startling both Chara (who gives you a half annoyed, mostly concerned look) and Sans (who stops his story for you).

“whoa, hey, kid, you okay?” he asks, the faintest bit of genuine concern flitting around the outskirts of his words. “did i put ya to sleep or somethin’?”

You finally snap yourself out of whatever it is that’s come over you, and look him in the eye.

“I’m fine.” Perhaps you say it a little too quickly. You sit back down in your seat, and scoot the chair closer to the table.

Sans chuckles a little and shakes his head. To your great surprise, he doesn’t pick up where he left off in the story. He bows his head and puts his elbows on the table (something Chara apparently has a lot to say about) so he can reach up to rub his neck.

“y'know…sometimes i get the impression that you and your little friend already know what i have to say.”

You freeze while playing with your lukewarm pasta, and Chara freezes mid rant.

“'specially when it comes to me talking about that lady in the Ruins. look, i don’t think i’m asking for much, okay? just a respectful audience. i’m actually pretty fond of that story, and the least you can do is sit through it politely, okay?”

Sans stands and adjusts his coat. He takes a look at the bill sitting on the table before heaving a sigh and pulling out a pen to sign his name.

“i’m paying for both our meals tonight, kid. don’t worry, you can pay next time.” He winks, and tosses the bill holder back down onto the table. It lands with an uncomfortably loud _thwack._ He pats down his coat to make sure he has everything he needs, and speaks again. “trust me when i say that…i know how hard it is to pretend sometimes, okay?” He looks to the side. “doesn’t mean you can’t act like a decent being.”

And with that, Sans leaves the restaurant. Despite him being gone, you’re afraid to move, in case any muscle relaxing would cause him to come back and hint at more things he shouldn’t know.

Chara comes out of their shock much faster than you. “I do not like that man,” they say in a polite tone, “Not even a little bit. I don’t like his habits, o-or his appearance, or his jokes, or his speeches. I like literally nothing about him.” They end the little monologue by folding their arms. “Not one bit.”

You’re still afraid to move. Only one concern floats around in your mind; how much _does_ he know?


	9. The ?????? Reset

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know, the releasing this on this date isn’t a very good idea, but I have a schedule that I would like to stick to. As such, this is in fact the real chapter. 100%, not joking, it is. I hope you enjoy it!

When you open your eyes, you see gold. Your face is resting in something mushy and cold, but the back of your head feels warm.

……

You still see gold.

……

The coldness of the soil beneath you starts to become an insignificant detail, one you barely notice as your body heat warms it.

……

The back of your head is starting to feel not just warm, but hot. Painfully so.

……

You still see gold.

“Frisk?” Chara interrupts the silence. “Are you really going to lie there?”

……..

They huff. “Why did you even bother resetting if you weren’t going to do anything but lay here this whole timeline?”

Finally, you open your mouth. You struggle not to inhale any dirt.

“Don’t like floating in the blackness,” you respond, voice muffled by the flowers. “Tried that once. S'not fun.” You lapse back into silence, praying that Chara will take the hint and leave you alone.

“Yeah,” they say, and only hearing their tone you can’t tell what emotion they’re experiencing. “I know. You took forever before you finally RESET.”

……..

“Come on,” they whine, “You can’t lie here forever, Frisk!”

“Do you want to bet?”

They stop talking after that. Finally.

All you want is silence. Well, that’s not true. Silence, rest, peace, an end to this hellish time loop, those would be splendid too. Maybe continuing to lie like this will earn one of those; it’s the only thing you haven’t tried yet, excluding the two extreme runs. Though, now that you think about it, Chara’s idea doesn’t sound too bad…if it would get them off your back about trying it, if it would cause something different to happen, well, maybe then…

No.

You make an attempt to pull yourself out of those dangerous thoughts. _You are not going down that path,_ you reassure yourself, _you’re not, you’re not, you’re not-_

-then why do those words feel so hollow?

“Chara,” you say after a few minutes of comfortable quiet. You regret ruining it, but you really would like this question answered. “How many times have we gone through this?”

You think they shrug, based on the tone of voice and the slight delay before they respond verbally. “Don’t know. I lost count after about a hundred and fifty-something.”

“Oh.” Your reply is muffled by Chara’s grave.

More time passes. You don’t know how long it is, seconds, minutes, even hours before Chara walks over and uses whatever  
physical connection they have with you to pull you to your feet. You feel their arms grab you around your stomach and heave you up. However, you prove to be too heavy for them and they fall back onto their grave, which causes you to _land in their lap_ of all places. They’re just a little older than you, and you’re just a little shorter than them, so you have to crane your neck to see their face from this angle.

To your astonishment, they’re not upset. Well, wait, you need to rephrase that.

They do, in point of fact, look distraught, just not in the way you expected. You thought they’d look frustrated, mad, bored, exasperated, or all of the above. Yet the kind of upset on Chara’s face has hints of worry, confusion, with a surprising amount of fear and a little bit of that exasperation thrown in for good measure. It’s a gaze you never expected to see them wear, much less towards you.

You draw in a breath to speak.

“You’re worried about me.”

Chara opens and closes their mouth a few times, anger only now starting to seep in.

“Wha- I- How-” They widen their eyes and glare. “How could you tell?! You don’t know that!” They’re speaking at such an intense volume that it makes your head hurt.

Despite the smile you put on, you’re not happy or amused. Just numb. “It’s written all over your face. You’re not very good at hiding your emotions, Chara.”

They continue to start sentences only to stop them directly after opening their mouth. You settle into their arms, nestle your head on their shoulder, and close your eyes. This is when they stop doing anything completely, and go rigid. You’re not looking at them, so you can’t tell what expression they’re accidentally wearing now, but you can guess that it’s either hostile, shocked, or again, both.

The two of you end up sitting like that for a while. It’s comfortable, the most comfortable you’ve been in a long time. You’ve never seen or felt Chara like this before. Everything is quiet and still, and you’re glad.

Then comes a whisper: “Frisk.”

“Mmmm?”

“We need to get up. _Please._ ”

The purple of the cavern walls and the bright yellow flowers give you a headache as soon as you open your eyes and see them. Suddenly, things are no longer quiet and no longer still. Chara shuffles out from underneath you, and you find that they actually reclined with you on top of them at some point, and you hadn’t noticed. Maybe you fell asleep.

Chara’s standing and, before you’re fully awake, pulling you to your feet. No one falls this time.

You do suppose that you should go and start things all over again. You have nothing better to do, after all.

Toriel rescues you from Flowey, and you’re off through the Ruins. You press all the correct buttons; you hit all the right switches. It seems like you blink and you and Chara are standing in front of the Training Dummy.

**_DUMMY - ATK 0 DEF 0_ **

**_They stand around absentmindedly._ **

Before you know what you’re doing, you’re mashing the FIGHT button, raising your stick and beating the dummy as hard as you can.

You can’t stop.

You hit it over and over and over and over until it’s nothing but mangled fabric and cotton. By then, Toriel and Chara both are trying to pull you away from the mess you’ve made. After it’s over, Toriel is clearly disappointed in you, but doesn’t say anything. Chara gives you their usual annoyed look, but mixed into it is concern. They ask you what’s wrong as you move into the next area, and all you give them is a noncommittal shrug. Soon you stand with them in the leaf pile room, clutching your cell phone so tightly it could break.

You feel-

No.

You don’t want to think about how you feel, or more accurately, how you _don’t._ You just want to be done. Instead, you look over to see what Chara’s thinking.

They appear to be lost in thought. You continue to look at them for a little while, remembering the strange interlude the two of you had.

 _They’re starting to change,_ your mind tells you, _this could be your chance._

You open your mouth to speak when they come out of whatever mental haze they were in and turn to look at you.

“So, are we going?” They sound neutral.

“Fine,” you respond, dropping your proposal. You don’t think it would’ve worked anyway. You take one step forward, two steps forward-

-when a Froggit blocks your path. You don’t like Chara’s habit of cursing, but you end up saying something offensive in your head.

You enter into the battle system, and Chara narrates like they usually do. You stand for a few moments wondering what move to make, when they say something unrelated to the current state of the Froggit.

“Kill them.”

That wakes you up just a little. You give them a weary glare.

“Why?”

“I saw you beat that Dummy,” they say, yet not in any sort of triumphant or happy way. “You’ve got a lot of steam built up. I was just thinking, you know, maybe this time, you could…”

You fill in the rest.

“Genocide.”

“No one would know,” they add hastily. “You can RESET at the end of this run and forget this ever happened. I was just thinking-” they take a sharp breath in, “-it would…uh, help you release some tension?”

You look from Chara, to your stick, to the Froggit hopping around in front of you.

You _are_ in a bad place… _and_ you haven’t tried this path yet… _and_ you can always RESET…

You take a deep breath.

You look at the Froggit.

You look at your menus, the four options you have.

……

You select FIGHT, and hardly a second later a smallish pile of off white dust sits in front of you.

Chara exhales beside you, though they try to keep it subtle.

“What now?” you ask them, eyes still fixed on the little mound of remains.

“We wait for more to arrive,” they say, finally a relieved smile on their face.

You grip your stick tighter.

“Until no one’s left.”

  
*****

  
After the initial Froggit, things get easier, though tiring. You have to stay in the leaf pile room for a while killing anything that comes in, which is boring, but there’s a strange sort of satisfaction that comes when Chara proudly announces, “but nobody came” whenever you enter a battle screen. The rest of the Ruins go by in a blur, then come the snowy woods where you walk through all of the useless puzzles set up to impede your progress. Chara rejoices that you’re not indulging Papyrus, for once.

Crossing the bridge into town is hard. Your movements are slow, though that may just be the cold. Or you guess it could be the amount of dust you have clinging to your shorts and sweater. It doesn’t really matter, in the end.

Snowdin, usually bustling and full of life, is a shell of its former self. Never once have you ever seen it this empty, even in runs where you kill most of the people in and outside of its borders. You and Chara shamble past Grillby’s, past the Librarby, past Sans’ and Papyrus’s house. A realization strikes you as you look at their cheerful decorations, and you stop just in front of their shed.

“What’s wrong?” Chara asks, clearly mad. “Why have we stopped?”

You shake your head, and you wrap your arms around your abdomen to retain body heat.

“Chara,” you say, your voice the most full of emotion you’ve heard it since the beginning of this timeline. “I-I don’t think I can do this.”

“What,” they say, “Deal with the cold? Frisk, you spend an absurd amount of time here in other runs, why can’t you stay warm now?”

You frown a little. Well, usually Sans lets you borrow a coat in those runs, and they should know that; they’ve complained about it many times before. They would never wear an article of clothing that ‘insolent, disgusting clown’ gave them, but you brush that thought away for the moment.

“I can’t-I can’t kill Papyrus.”

“Why not? You’ve done it before!”

You shake your head. “This is different. I…things are different, now. I try not to kill him anymore, but-”

But you have to do this.

You look down at your dusty attire. You’ve come this far, and you’ve already told both Chara and yourself repeatedly that you’re going to the end of this. Besides, you don’t know what Chara would do to you if you quit this now, with the mood they’re in.

You. Have. No. Choice.

But you do have a thought.

“What if you possessed me and killed him? I mean, I promised to myself _I_ wouldn’t do it, but if _you_ do it, that…kind of bends the rules.”

“Sure,” Chara smiles in what would have been a sickening way if you could actually feel something like sickness at the moment. “Now?”

Your SOUL moves violently within your body, but you hold yourself steady. _It’s warning you not to do it,_ you realize, _it’s telling you that you shouldn’t trust them._

You nod anyway. “Now.”

This hasn’t happened in quite a while. The sensation of being pulled into your own mind feels almost like when Chara pulled you onto their lap in the Ruins.

They start walking your body forward. By the feel of things, it seems they don’t appreciate the weather either. You’re able to peer through your mind’s eye into the real, physical world, but you already know that you don’t want to see this.

Besides…you feel so…very…tired…

Though the place you’re in is shapeless and black, you feel yourself lie down. You imagine being back in the flowers with Chara, and slowly drift off. You think you hear a scream at one point, but it doesn’t matter. You couldn’t save him if you wanted to.

Nothing matters.

Nothing matters…


	10. MERCY

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit gorier and more intense than most. Here’s some warnings for descriptive violence, general psychological badness, injuries, and self harm. I will also add these to the tags as I believe some of these themes may be repeated in the next few chapters.

“Gh….guess you don’t want to join my fan club?”

In a flash Mettaton is gone, and you feel Chara smile. You had expected this version of the Mettaton fight to be much harder, but they had been able to destroy him in only one hit. Something tells you that it would have made your SOUL quake in fear had you not let Chara gain control of it for the fight.

You haven’t been letting them use your body the whole time, only for specific battles that you didn’t have the strength to face by yourself. In this run, Chara seems so much stronger and more nimble than ever before. Despite their many deaths, you watched how they mopped the floor with Undyne when you couldn’t, and you watched them slaughter countless creatures when you were too weak to go on. A lot of times all you wanted was the sweet release of being in your mental cell, so you let them take over so you could rest.

Smile still pasted on, Chara walks out of the long elevator and into New Home. The city is always quiet and has a spirit of melancholy when you’re there, but now the atmosphere seems suffocating considering what you and Chara have done. Those you couldn’t kill have been evacuated, and you wonder if that really means _everyone._

Will someone in fact be waiting for you in the Final Hallway, or will you be able to walk through and straight to Asgore’s Throne Room?

Chara passes by a lone monster in the street.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” they say, moving towards Chara to ask a question, “but do you know where everyone went? I’ve been-”

Chara whips out their gun, and a few shots later, the monster is gone. They tuck the weapon back into the pocket of their shorts and walk on like nothing happened.

You suddenly realize: usually they give you back your body at this point after a big fight, but they haven’t yet. Something about that makes you uncomfortable even though you know that you would probably end up putting them back in control soon enough.

“Chara?” you say. Even in your mental cell you know they can interact with you. “Are you going to put me back?”

They stop suddenly, but don’t reply. You look through your mind’s eye and see what it is that’s stopped them.

They stand in front of the castle, staring.

The next few steps they take are slow, tentative, almost vulnerable. They walk around the courtyard, taking in the grey walls and the red leaves.

“Chara?” you ask again, a little louder this time.

It takes a moment, but they walk inside.

It’s strange seeing the interior of the castle without the groups of storytelling subjects waiting for you. It’s deathly quiet.

The first thing Chara does is inspect the golden flowers in the entryway.

“ **Buttercups**.”

Only recently have they started saying their narration out loud instead of just to you.

They then turn to the bedrooms. They stand in front of the first door and place their hand on the bronze doorknob. They take their time opening it, and you can feel them tracing the designs in the old metal of the knob.

Inside is the children’s bedroom. For the first time it occurs to you that Chara used to _sleep_ in here. They cried in here, laughed in here, played in here…and their brother Asriel with them.

When they enter the room they grab the two presents sitting on the floor and walk them over to the bed on the left. As they sit down on the dusty but neatly made bed, the frame squeaks under their weight. They smooth their hands on the quilt beneath them; probably something Toriel hand made.

Chara takes a deep breath.

Their attention turns back to the gifts beside them, and they open the one laying closest to them. It contains a sharpened knife, and Chara beams as they feel the weight and inspect the decorated handle.

“ **Here we are!** ” they sing. They press the pads of their fingers to the cold, metal blade before moving it to their arm and scraping the flesh. The feeling of having your skin cut against your will hurts more than it should and you cry out, hoping that they stop testing their new weapon soon.

You see your reddened skin and the blood from the wound, which makes you feel nauseous. In a way you’re glad that you’re not in your physical body because of how much you want to vomit. Chara takes another deep breath; they don’t seem affected by what they’ve done in the slightest.

They set the knife down and get up from the bed to go to the closet. They open it, and are met by an array of yellow and green striped shirts.

“ **Our clothes.** ”

After a few minutes of looking through its contents they find a homemade first aid kit. They take the time to clean the wound (and the knife after it) but they don’t cover it with a bandage.

They return to the bed and open the other present, which contains a red, heart shaped locket. Engraved in gold on the front are the words ‘Best Friends Forever’. Chara places it around their neck.

“ **Right where it belongs.** ”

They close their eyes and gently stroke the metal of the chain. A moment later, they use both hands to open the locket. Inside it is a picture of Chara, smiling mischievously, and a young goat-like creature who’s laughing so hard he’s hunched over. The two of them are holding hands.

You feel your features sharpen; they’re upset.

They _tear the room apart._

The mattresses on the beds are lifted up, the closet opened and everything inside it strewn about. The toys and shoes and pictures and books in the room are torn from their neat places and thrown in all directions. You need them to stop their inexplicable rage soon, because being out of breath with no way to control it or calm yourself down is a frightening feeling.

When they finish, they stand by the door and examine their mess. You feel like Chara–the normal Chara, not this strange, twisted version of them–would be teary eyed, distressed, or at least agitated by what they’ve done, but the Chara they’ve become by going on this Genocide run only glares, and storms out of the bedroom.

They bump into Flowey just outside the door, and he smiles big.

“Howdy, Chara! You finally made it home. Remember when we used to play here?”

Chara ignores him, and walks to the next room over. The sign says ‘Room Under Renovations’, but they try to force it anyway. It doesn’t budge no matter how much they try, which only adds to their rage.

You don’t like how violent Chara’s become. Around Waterfall you could tell they they were changing because of your actions (becoming easily angered, forgetting things they were supposed to know…) but you never thought that it would go to this extent. In fact, at the time you had hoped that it was just your imagination, something brought on because your senses were jumbled from switching between your mind and your body so much.

It’s true that Chara had been scary and mean at times when they were their normal self, but you still plainly saw the good in their heart. They still had emotions other than “irrational anger” and “murder”. They had felt like a person then, a human; a lost, scared little kid, just like you.

You don’t know what they could be classed as right now, but if there’s anything it _isn’t_ , it’s 'human’.

Fed up with the bedrooms, Chara reaches for the key on the nearby table and heads to the other end of the house.

They investigate Asgore’s small kitchen. They open the refrigerator and see packages of instant noodles, containers marked 'good pie’ and 'bad pie’, various drinks, and even a corner in the back dedicated to cultivating select herbs and plants. You think it’s interesting how organized the contents of his fridge are, but Chara doesn’t feel the same. They slam the door closed.

“ **No chocolate.** ”

They run out of the kitchen with the other key and are met again by Flowey, who they continue to ignore. He seems frustrated by this response and burrows back underneath the ground.

Chara returns to the entryway and unlocks the chain blocking their way. Flowey pops back up while they’re descending the huge staircase.

“I remember when I first woke up here, in the garden. I was so scared. I couldn’t feel my arms or my legs…my entire body had turned into a flower!”

You’ve never once seen Flowey this sincere and almost _nice_. He’s desperately trying to communicate with Chara, in a way that reminds you of a child trying to communicate with what they suspect is an angry parent. Did he know them while they were alive? If that’s the case, why wouldn’t Chara have said something about it long before now?

“'Mom! Dad! Somebody help me!’ I called out.”

Wait.

“But nobody came.”

_Wait._

“Eventually, the king found me, crying in the garden. I explained what had happened to him. Then he held me. Chara. He held me with tears in eyes, saying…'there, there. Everything is going to be alright.’ He was so…emotional. But…for some reason…I didn’t feel anything at all.”

The epiphany hits you like a punch to your metaphorical gut.

The dust from Asriel’s body spread across the garden when he returned from the surface with Chara. You recall the image of the flowers that grow in Asgore’s Throne Room, and you compare them to the one talking in front of you. Minus the face, they’re identical. You also remember that even through the scariest moments and the threats and the murder, Flowey’s always had a childlike nature. He sort of reminds you of a bully on a school playground, albeit with a larger vocabulary.

“I soon realized I didn’t feel ANYTHING about ANYONE. My compassion had disappeared! And believe me, it’s not like I wasn’t trying.”

But it’s in _this_ moment, as he talks to Chara and tells his story, that you realize Asriel isn’t really dead.

Flowey _is_ Asriel.

“Chara,” you say. Your voice is torn between excitement and fear. “Chara, I just realized something!”

They keep walking through the basement halls, now ignoring you and Flowey both.

“Chara!” you try again, “Asriel is alive! And-” Another realization hits you as soon as you speak. You gasp a little, “I think I know how to get him back.”

Chara doesn’t stop. Their facial expression doesn’t change at all. They don’t even breathe differently.

“Chara?”

 _No._ Resolve builds within you. _They haven’t been human for a long time._

You have to find a way back into your body somehow, and with Chara not listening to you it has to be without their help. If you let them get past this point and kill Asgore, you don’t know what could happen. In this nigh-demonic state and with all the LV they have, it could be something that threatens the entire world, much less what little of the underground remains.

For the first time in a while, the numbness that’s ebbed and flowed inside you for so long is drained away. Even in your spiritual form, you’re filled with Determination.

It’s right then that Chara stops walking.

Flowey is backed up in the corner of the walkway, pressed against the wall opposite the elevator. He’s trembling.

“H-hey, what are you doing!? B…back off!! I…I’ve changed my mind about all this. This isn’t a good idea anymore. Y-you should go back, Chara. This place is fine the way it is!”

Chara takes a single step closer.

“S-s-stop making that creepy face! This isn’t funny! You’ve got a SICK sense of humor!”

Faster than you’ve ever seen, he pops into the ground and doesn’t return.

In the silence, Chara laughs. Not a giggle or chuckle but a roaring guffaw, as hard as a twelve year old demon can possibly laugh. There comes a point when you can feel your body’s lack of air, and it makes you panic.

_Breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe, please-_

They finally take a breath, and wipe tears from their eyes before turning their gaze to the next room. A few seconds later, pillars and golden light fill your vision. A fresh feeling of dread overwhelms you, and you wish with all your might that Sans evacuated. You _know_ that he would be an easy kill for Chara, easier than even Papyrus was. He doesn’t deserve that, especially after everything the two of you have done to him. The thought reinforces how vital it is that you get back into your body and fix things.

Chara SAVES by the door before starting down the hall. Once they get to the cluster of pillars in the center, he’s already there. No teleportation, no waiting in the shadows–he’s standing right in front of you, hands in his coat pockets and a familiar ratted red scarf tucked around his neck.

“heya. you’ve been busy, huh?” He chuckles like this is another joke. “so, i’ve got a question for ya. do you think that even the worst person can change…? that everyone can be a good person if they just try?”

He looks away from you, and his eyes glaze over. Chara doesn’t speak but they step forward, brandishing the Real Knife.

Sans laughs again, and this time it’s much less sincere. “all right. here’s a better question.”

The lights in his sockets die.

“do you want to have a bad time? 'cause if you take another step forward…you are REALLY not going to like what happens next.”

Chara draws closer, smiling now. Sans sighs, and scratches the side of his skull.

“welp.” his voice lowers to a whisper, as if he’s talking more to himself than to Chara. “sorry, tori. this is why i don’t make promises.”

Chara enters into the battle system. Everything goes dark except for Sans, the gentle glow of the SOUL they’ve stolen, and the four buttons by their hands.

“it’s a beautiful day.”

Chara gets into a comfortable fighting stance.

“birds are singing…flowers are blooming…on days like today, kids like you…”

You wait for Chara to strike him down. You wait for the telltale death sound, for Sans to stop talking and become nothing more than a pile of dust on the ground.

They grip their knife.

“…should be burning in hell.”

The first line of bones tear through their body before they realize what’s happening. Before that agony ends, a sudden blue fire–no, _worse_ than fire–, engulfs them and the SOUL cracks and shatters. Asgore’s voice echoes in the darkness, and they’re back at the beginning of the Final Hallway, coughing and spluttering and trying to catch their breath.

Sans shouts across the distance.

“heya. you look frustrated about something. guess i’m pretty good at my job, huh?”

 

  
*****

  
It hurts.

It hurts more than any death you’ve ever felt down here. It’s worse than feeling rows of spears pierce your body, worse than lightning and bombs, worse than spider bites, worse than anything Flowey and the SOULS could ever conjure.

It seems that the bones don’t ever stop coming, even when it’s supposed to be Chara’s turn. You feel them try and avoid the attacks but they’re caught off guard often, the bones scraping off bits of their face, breaking their knees so they can’t run, and sometimes even stabbing them clean through, all while they’re under the influence of Sans’ Blue Magic. When the SOUL gives out, small relief comes with it until Chara wakes up at the beginning of the hallway again and pushes forward. If they feel the pain they don’t show it, but _you_ can feel everything.

The blasters are even worse. Sometimes when they’re hit by the rays you don’t even feel pain, just a strange, unearthly coldness that sweeps through your whole being. Then the feeling of being burned alive kicks in when you least expect it, engulfing you completely and you _scream._

The absolute worst thing however is that you can’t do anything to stop Sans from attacking you, or Chara from moving forward after every reload. You’ve tried everything you can think of to escape your mind. Searching around in the strange black landscape is a fruitless effort, as you can’t find any exits or links to the outside world besides where you can see out into it. You’ve tried jumping around, creating commotion to get their attention or wake them up, but that also ends up being useless.

It’s hard to think up escape plans while you’re in agonizing pain anyway.

You’ve tried taking a page from Flowey and appealing to Chara verbally. You tell them that you’re sorry, that you know how to save Asriel, that you’re their friend and that this path will only cause more pain and suffering for them and everyone else. Sometimes you hope that your screams will be enough to wake them up somehow.

Through everything, Sans talks.

“our reports showed a massive anomaly in the timespace continuum. timelines jumping left and right, stopping and starting…until suddenly, everything ends.”

You repeat the last bit back to yourself: “until everything ends.” Was that Chara’s goal all along? Did they choose to do these things and amass this power to end all of existence?

Regret and sorrow and love ( _real_ love) all pang within you. If only you had noticed, if only you could have helped, if only you could find a way to stop this and save them, save everyone-

Caught by another blaster, you cry out. Once the pain starts to go away, you and Chara are back by the SAVE point. They wipe their mouth and walk forward.

This is the time when they’re able to avoid most of the attacks Sans throws at them. Occasionally a bone will scrape past their elbow or tear their sweater, but with the help of muscle memory (and a lot of sandwiches) there comes a point when the agony stops.

Sans staggers back a little, and all his magic dissipates.

“ugh…that being said…”

Despite the pain you’re in, you snap to an attentive state.

He’s stopped.

“you, uh, really like swinging that thing around, huh? listen. i know you didn’t answer me before, but…somewhere in there. i can feel it.”

“Sans…” you say aloud.

“there’s a glimmer of a good person inside of you. the memory of someone who once wanted to do the right thing. someone who, in another time, might have even been…a friend?”

You want to cry. More than _anything_ do you want to be friends again. You want to make up for your mistakes, and Chara’s mistakes, and all of the awful things that you’ve done and just be friends.

“c'mon, buddy. do you remember me? please, if you’re listening…let’s forget all this, ok? just lay down your weapon, and…well, my job will be a lot easier.”

Sans is sparing you.

Chara swerves toward the FIGHT button.

“No!”

You reach towards MERCY with all your might, even if you think it won’t do anything without a physical form. You close your eyes and imagine yourself pressing it. You imagine Sans’ reaction, you imagine Chara going back to their normal self, you imagine meeting Asriel for the first time. You _need_ this to work.

This one action ends up making all the difference.

The body goes a little limp, and suddenly Chara’s with you in the black mental cell.

“What are you doing?” they ask, not angry, but with the tone of a curious child. “A SOUL cannot serve two masters. Why would you bring me here?”

You notice that this LV-Drunk Chara has red eyes.

“Why would you ruin things?”

This is it.

This is your chance, your miracle.

You make another move for the MERCY button, but Chara leaps onto your spirit form and holds your arms down.

You struggle to kick them off of you, but they’re holding you tight, pushing you against whatever the equivalent of a floor is in this place. It’s lucky that they don’t have their knife in here, because you’d surely be dead by now.

You see Sans waiting, trying to catch his breath.

You struggle.

Their grip loosens slightly, enough for you to find the leeway to kick them in the gut. They make an “oof” noise and fly off you. You flip over, and have just enough time to reach your hand out and desperately try to regain some control over your physical body.

You feel a prickling sensation in your arm (your _real_ arm in the _real_ world) and you feel your hand clutching the knife so tight that it hurts. Feeling the pain of the handle digging into your palm, you drop it.

Slowly, parts of your body come back. You can’t feel everything yet, but you can control enough.

Tears prickle in your eyes, and you use all your strength to select MERCY just before Chara launches themselves at your spirit. They overtake your body again, and you lose grip on what physicality you had.

It doesn’t matter; they freeze when they realize what you’ve done. It’s enough of a shock to them that you’re able to push them completely out of your body and feel everything.

“you’re sparing me?”

Sans looks about as shocked as Chara.

“finally. buddy. pal. i know how hard it must be…to make that choice. to go back on everything you’ve worked up to. i want you to know…i won’t let it go to waste.”

He outstretches his arms.

“c'mere, pal.”

The tears fall unbidden now, in loud, harsh sobs that wrack your whole body. You fall into Sans’ arms, and he envelopes you. He even takes the time to squeeze you a little, holding you close. You feel safe and comfortable with him before pain ruptures through your entire abdomen. You see nothing but white for just a moment, so much going on that your brain can’t even process what’s happening to you. You feel something warm and wet dripping onto your thighs-

“geeettttttt dunked on!!!” you hear Sans shout over Asgore’s voice, triumphant and happy and full of pure relief. “if we’re really friends…you won’t come back.”

You feel your consciousness fade out before slowly fading back in.

You’ve returned to the Final Hallway.

Chara beats against the edges of your mind, attempting to regain their lost control. You’re glad that they’re not beside you, in spirit form or not.

As fast as you possibly can, you open your menus and find your trusty RESET button.

Without hesitation, you press it.

 

  
*****

  
When you open your eyes, you see gold.

You whip your head up and look around, making sure that things are really what you think they are.

The first thing you see is Chara, and you breathe a sigh of relief. Only you start to hold your breath when you see their red eyes, the blank, mindless smile on their face-

-and the knife in their right hand.

“Greetings,” they say in a pleasant tone, almost like they’re bringing up the weather. “I am Chara.”

Faster than ever before, you’re transported into the battle system.

“Your name is Frisk.”

Nothing happens yet.

You’re staring at them, wondering how they could possibly have a physical form, and how they’re still not themselves.

They play with their knife as they talk, and it glints in the sliver of sunlight falling from the surface. “It seems you ruined my plans. You’re lucky that buffoon decided to pull the 'fake MERCY’ card.” They tilt their head to the side a little. “Still, you can’t stop me.”

A knife shaped bullet flies straight for your SOUL, and you’re only barely able to dodge it. They giggle.

Chara’s appearance bubbles and changes as they laugh. Large red blisters appear around their lips, and the skin on their hands and face becomes pink and irritated. A trickle of blood appears in the corner of their mouth, and their smile grows wider, baring teeth. Their eyes disappear, leaving only black voids behind.

“I am the Angel,” they say, summoning countless knife bullets and aiming them, “And you’re **in my way.** ”


	11. It's Me

_When you open your eyes, you see gold. Your face is resting in something mushy and cold, but the back of your head feels warm._

_Slowly, carefully, you pick yourself up off the ground. It appears that a bed of beautiful yellow flowers broke your fall into the mountain. For a brief moment you feel disappointed, but then excitement takes over as you see the purple walls around you and the ornate entryway a little further down. All you can hear is the sound of your own shallow breaths, until-_

_“What, are you just going to stand there?”_

_The comment startles you, and you whirl around, looking for where the voice came from. You see nothing. Your feet instinctively carry you away from the flower patch where you were standing, and when you turn back around to look at it you see the translucent figure of a child standing in your place. They’re probably not even two years older than you are. They look annoyed._

_“And what, are you just going to stare at me? Though I wouldn’t be surprised if you couldn’t see me through all the-” they vaguely gesture to their forehead, “-hair.”_

_“Um-”_

_“Wait…you’re…you’re a human, aren’t you?”_

_You’re hurt that they cut you off, and you shrink a little in their presence. You nod._

_Their expression changes from annoyed to confused. “I don’t remember there being any other humans but me living down here. Wait…wait…” They place a hand to their head. “What year is it? Is it still 201X?”_

_You don’t know who this person is, or why you’re still alive, or where you are, and the whole situation is starting to get to you, but you politely answer their question anyway._

_“206X.”_

_Their jaw drops. “Wow. I’ve been dead for a while.”_

_You take another step back. “Are you a ghost?”_

_The other child looks around the room before studying their own spirit body._

_“Huh. Yeah, that would make sense. I didn’t even know that was…possible.” When their eyes meet yours, they’re glaring. “What’s your name?”_

_You hesitate. “Frisk.”_

_They laugh. “That’s a dumb name.”_

_“Well,” you whisper as they glide past you, “It’s not like I got to choose it.”_

_“What was that?”_

_“I said, ‘what’s your name?’”_

_“Chara.”_

_You don’t know why, but the way they say it sends chills down your spine._

_You’re starting to get really scared._

  
*****

  
You’re terrified.

The knives all fall towards your SOUL at the same time. Luckily going on this journey has sharpened your dodging skills quite a bit, and you’re able to weave through the cluster of bullets without dying. However, 3 of your 20 hit points are taken by the projectiles.

This is when you start to panic. Being at the beginning of the timeline, your pockets are completely empty. The only things that you have with you are your stick and the bandage on your right palm.

It’s the Angel of Death.

“ **You can’t win. 19 is a far larger number than 1. I’ll have your SOUL soon enough.** ”

You examine your options: FIGHT, ACT, ITEM, and MERCY.

Since you’ve already established that you have nothing to aid you, ITEM is out of the question.

You can’t FIGHT. FIGHTING is what created this “Angel”, what caused this whole mess in the first place. You can’t rely on that ever again.

That leaves two buttons: ACT and MERCY. You don’t know if MERCY would work (at least right now), so you open your ACT menu and see what it says there.

There are two options: ‘Hold On’ and 'Call’.

You hold on…your DEF increases by ½.

Seriously?

“ **You see, I don’t need your body anymore. If I get just one more LV, I’ll have my own. This half complete state that I’m in does serve a purpose though,** ” the voids that used to be their eyes ooze a mixture of blood and something black, “ **Even if it’s just a stepping stone to get what I truly need.** ”

So they’re not fully corporeal yet, that’s information you think you can use. If they’re not LV 20, and therefore still some part spirit…can you change them back?

Droplets of blood materialize, and they drip down from the ceiling of the cavern at a rapid rate, straight for your SOUL. You dodge and dodge and dodge, starting to get the rhythm of drips down until one giant droplet catches you unaware. That’s another 3 points of HP off your previous 17.

This is _not_ good.

You return to your ACT menu and hold on again. Your DEF increases by 1.

“ **It’s your fault, Frisk,** ” they say with a sickly sweet tone. “ **It was your choice to start the Genocide run. Your choice to let me use your SOUL. I wouldn’t have this power without your help.** ”

The knives return, this time flying in all directions; they seem to be taking a page from Undyne’s spear attacks. You’re able to avoid all of them, despite a few close calls.

You hold on. Your DEF increases by 1 ½. You’ll try 'call’ later, but right now you need all the DEF you can get.

The Angel laughs; they’re having a ball of a time fighting you. This turn they use three large knives to attack, and you have to jerk suddenly in order to avoid being cut in half.

You’re shocked that you’ve survived this long. You thank the Determination you feel flowing through your veins.

You hold on. Your DEF increases by 2.

“ **It’s too bad that you won’t be able to watch me kill your stupid friends and ERASE this miserable existence. I can’t wait!** ”

They throw something completely new at you this time, a powdery white substance that spreads once it makes impact with your SOUL. The feeling of being hit by this attack is awful; it eats away at the top layer of your skin, leaving it pink and raw. Noticing the way it clings to your body and clothing you realize that they’re using _dust._ For a minute your vision swims and you have to remember when and where you are so you can stand a chance in the rest of the fight.

You’re now at 10 HP. You reexamine your options. You think you can hold on a bit longer without reapplying your bandage, as long as they don’t throw anything new at you.

“ **You can’t stop me.** ”

Something strange is happening. As things escalate, as they talk and laugh and FIGHT, their face seems to be growing more obscured by something. It’s not hugely noticeable, but you’re starting to catch glimpses of what looks like a cloud passing over their eyes, or their mouth, or bits of their hair.

“ **I am the Angel of Death,** ” they say, and the strange cloud starts to pop up more. It’s almost blocky looking. “ **I will ERASE all**.”

Now seems like a good time to try to “Call”. For a moment, you wonder what you should say.

Suddenly, it comes to you.

You call Chara’s name. A feeling seems to pass over The Angel’s face, only to be dismissed.

“ **I have no name.** ”

It’s the blood attack again, and this time you’re left with 8 HP.

You reapply the bandage; still a little gooey. Your HP increases by 10.

“ **I will cut down anything in my way.** ”

You lose 2 HP.

You call Chara’s name. Nothing happens.

“ **I have no name.** ”

You’re down to 15 HP now.

This has to work. You call Chara’s name.

“ **What are you trying to accomplish? You cannot defeat me now.** ”

14 HP. You call…

“ **What are you trying to prove by dying this way?** ”

12 HP. You call…

“ **Your cold body will be ERASED with everything else.** ”

9 HP. You call Chara’s name. The flash of feeling seems to last longer this time.

“ **……** ”

You call…

“ **Stop.** ”

6 HP. You call…

“ **Stop IT!** ”

3 HP. You call Chara’s name. At the end you add a quiet, “Please come back.”

“ **Don’t you g** et it?”

Almost there. You can do it.

“I don’t WANT to live! I NEVER wanted to live!”

2 HP. Keep going.

“I tried to save this world, I wanted to do something right…”

Their grotesque appearance is starting to melt away. You see parts of their real face again.

“But that didn’t work! Now here I am, nothing more than a shadow of my former self, because I’m not even able to stay dead!”

A lone knife arcs through the air, and you dodge it easily.

“Frisk…I…”

……

“I have to do this.”

……

“It’s the only option I have. I tried MERCY.”

……..

“Please…let me rest…Frisk…”

It’s Chara Dreemurr.

You show MERCY.

The battle system evaporates around the two of you, and you’re back in the flowers. Chara, being spared and having spared in return, has ruined their Genocide run. They collapse on their grave, and you register this just too late to be able to heroically catch them. They seem back to normal.

Chara starts to sob. They cry big, ugly tears. You move to sit with them and attempt to take their hand. They pull away, wide eyed.

“Frisk, no, I’ll hurt you.”

“I don’t believe-”

“No, p-please, you saw what happened. I don’t trust myself, even in spirit form-m.”

You fly towards them anyway, engulfing them in a great hug. They freeze up, not knowing how to react.

“Frisk…”

They sigh and keep their arms limp at their sides. You don’t care that they don’t reciprocate; you’re just glad to have them back. You squeeze them a little tighter.

……

“Frisk…what do I say?”

“Nothing,” you respond. “Say nothing.”

So the two of you sit, saying nothing. After everything you’ve been through recently, the silence and still of the situation are more than welcome. They laugh, and their crying gets worse.

“I’ve hurt everyone I’ve met,” Chara whispers. They rest their head on your shoulder. “Especially Asriel. I loved him more than anything in the world, but that didn’t stop me from treating him badly.” They sniffle. “I want to say I’m sorry, that’s-that’s all I want to do right now. I m-miss him so much.”

Asriel.

_Asriel._

The synapses fire in your brain, connecting certain points of information with others and you gasp remembering what you discovered earlier. Chara lifts their head from your shoulder and you release them from the hug.

“What’s with that crazy l-look?” they say, their trademark irritation in their words and on their face.

“Chara,” you say, “I discovered something amazing during the Genocide run. I tried to tell you then, but for some reason you weren’t listening to me.” They look away, and you gently bring their sight back to yours. “Asriel isn’t dead, just like you. Flowey is Asriel. I know it.”

Their eyes widen as they realize what you just said, and they stand up, walking away from you.

“No,” they say, “No. No. No, Asriel was never like that. He wasn’t cruel and sick and evil and…scary. He was the kindest, most thoughtful person I’ve-”

“Chara,” you step towards them, “Chara, I know.” You try to put some sort of comfort in your voice. “I don’t know why he’s a flower, or why he’s so twisted now, but I know it’s him. He all but said it when he talked to you in the castle.”

“Why can’t I remember? I remember everything else I did.”

“You were…busy, but I was paying attention. Please, believe me. I think I know how to get his real self back.”

Chara’s dumbfounded. You can tell that they need to take a moment and process all of this information, so you step back into the flower patch to give them some room.

You can plainly see the gears in their head turning as they stare into space. You’re drawn their eyes, thankfully back to normal now. You think that the reddish-brown is much more suitable for them than the demonic red ever was.

Finally, they wake up. Their voice is small, almost humble.

“ _How?_ ”

You grin. “We do a Pacifist run. I’m certain that would lead to a happy ending for everyone, including your brother.”

“Use MERCY on everyone?”

You nod.

“Even the little monsters that no one would miss?”

You nod again.

“You really think it would work?” they fold their arms.

“We should give it a try, at least.”

Chara glances at you, but then looks away again. “Can we rest first?”

Well. That’s something you never thought that you’d hear them say.

“I…every time I look at my hands, I still see the…the…” They growl and turn from you, hunched in on themselves. They give dirty looks to the rocky floor beneath them.

“It’s okay,” you say, your tone soft. When they finally look at you, their expression contains shame, fear, and some other, deeper feeling you can’t quite place. Past the snark and the anger and the remnants of the demon you just fought, you see that they are nothing more than a broken child. They remind you of yourself before you came down here.

You reach towards them, and they curl in on themselves more. They flinch when you lay a hand on their shoulder.

“It’s okay, Chara. I’m not upset.” You smile. “Rest is a good idea. I’m pretty tired.”

They slowly unravel. You sit down on their grave, and they lie down next to you. You offer them your hand again, and they end up accepting it. You lace your fingers through theirs, and use your free hand to point at the tiny stream of sunlight that shines down.

“Everyone’s gonna be up there soon,” you say.

“Yeah. And so will he.”


	12. Memory

It’s nice to feel something.

Ever since you spared Sans, everything has gradually become much clearer and easier. You feel more motivated than ever before, and the ability to experience all emotions again in their glory is truly refreshing. The numbness you felt is now completely gone, and you are more than glad to feel like a human being again.

Even if that means re-experiencing something like fear, which you wouldn’t mind being without.

“I do not like this place,” Chara says as they creep along behind you. “It’s somewhere new, sure, but I don’t think we’re safe here.”

You stop to inspect one of the signs near you. “Alphys said that if we wanted to know the truth we needed to follow her.” You smile and look over at them before returning to the sign. “I think we’ll find out what happened to your brother down here. That’s something, right?”

They’ve been getting much more honest with their own emotions of late, so you can see the fear plain on their face. “I guess. I still think we should leave, though.”

You move to the next sign and inspect it. “The elevator’s broken.”

“Oh. Right. I guess I didn’t actually get hurt by the crash. I forgot.”

You give them a strange look; it’s something that had only happened a few minutes ago. Your expression then softens. “It’s alright.”

Silence. Chara moves next to you so they can see the sign you’re reading too. Soon, the two of you move on, and you enter a large metallic lobby. The first thing you see is a looming but distinctly locked door.

The second thing you see is a vending machine. Still aching and tired from your fall, you make your way over to the machine and acquire two bags of Popato Chisps. You stuff one into your pocket, and you open the other to munch on as you venture west into the sprawling lab. Chara trails a few yards behind you, quiet.

The next room you enter has a series of operating tables by another electronic sign. You walk swiftly past them, pushing down your morbid curiosity. At the other end of the room, you find a washing station. A row of three sinks sit, next to a trash can. Having just devoured your first bag of salty Chisps, you find this incredibly convenient. You toss the empty bag in the nearby trashcan, and turn on the first sink you see to wash the salt and slight grease off your hands.

The sink splutters to life when you turn the knob, but too much water is pouring from the faucet too fast and it’s all you can do to turn it off before the sink overflows. The second sink does the same thing, and you have to turn that one off too. Behind you, Chara snickers at your half soaked sweater and still messy hands, and you can’t help but laugh too.

The third time’s the charm.

You turn on the third sink, and while something comes out, it is not water. A strange white substance falls and falls and falls out of the faucet until it fills it to the brim. The substance somehow smiles at you, and you enter the battle system.

The white thing splits into three vaguely shaped masses of eyes and ears and other monster bits you don’t want to know about. You expect to hear Chara narrate something about this frightening turn of events, but they say nothing. This would be scary enough if you hadn’t realized how abruptly their laughter stopped.

You whirl around to see them and find that they don’t look normal. At first you panic because you think they might be turning into The Angel again, but in reality, the differences are more subtle than that.

The shimmer of their spirit has become erratic. Light shines off them at bizarre angles, and they themselves seem all together brighter than usual. Their eyes stare blankly at the three beings ahead.

“Drew near!” is all they say. You see the muscles in their arms and neck bulge like they’re trying their hardest to move their body or even say something else. “Drew near!” they repeat in the most vacant, detached tone you’ve ever heard from them. Whatever these three things are, they’re hurting Chara, and you can’t allow that.

You turn back to the battle, and do whatever you can in your ACT menu.

The things speak in a garbled voice, like a hundred people trying to talk at once.

“But nobody came,” Chara says, seemingly trying to do their best Flowey impression.

You fiddle with your cell phone, attempting to follow the instructions laid out for you in the ACT menu. You press your phone to your ear.

The Memoryheads’ voices are much more distinct now, but still have an echoey and dissonant feel to them.

“ ** _Come join the fun._** ”

“But nobody came.”

Yup, you’re glad beyond belief that you aren’t numb anymore, but this is an awful trade off even so.

You refuse the Memoryheads’ offer.

“ ** _Become one of us!_** ”

“Seems like it doesn’t care anymore,” says Chara, and you show the Memoryheads MERCY. They fade into nothingness, and as soon as the battle closes Chara stumbles backwards and lands near one of the operating tables.

“What was that?” they ask, voice full of panic and terror, “What just happened?”

You rush to them. “I don’t know! Were you aware during that?”

They shake their head. “Kind of? I was at first, but then I started to remember…” they trail off. Their eyes get big, and you hug them. Because of their recent change in perspective, you’ve been able to do this much more often.

You see something glint out of the corner of your eye, and return to the sink that the Memoryheads came out of to find a red key. You attach it to your key chain.

“Do you think it was because I’m a spirit?”

You turn back to them and shrug. “Maybe. I don’t know why that would give them power over you, though. No other monster can do that.”

“Well…that’s true, but I don’t think these things are like ‘other monsters’.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Well,” they take a breath in, “At least I know how you felt when I used your body now.”

You laugh nervously, and they echo you. The two of you press forward, Chara sticking a little closer to you this time.

  
*****

  
_“Chara? What are you doing?”_

_“Nothing.”_

_“Really? How can you be doing nothing?”_

_“I just am.”_

_That didn’t deter him. He hovered by their bed._

_They moaned. “What do you want?”_

_“Oh, uh, well…” his timid look was replaced with a small but powerful smile. “I was hoping we could go play! Mom said we could invite some friends over…I was going to call Suzie…”_

_They didn’t respond, and they didn’t move. They laid there._

_“Chara?”_

_They said nothing. They tried to surreptitiously pull their left sweater sleeve down._

_“Are you hiding something?” He climbed onto the bed, and tried to pull them towards him. He laughed a little, and pulled harder. “Come on, Chara, you can’t-”_

_He stopped when he saw the blood on their arm._

_“What happened??”_

_“I told you,” they said, voice completely monotone, “It’s nothing.”_

_“It’s not nothing! I’m getting Mom.”_

_“Wait, Asr-”_

_He was gone._

_They threw themselves hard onto their pillows and growled. Couldn’t he just mind his own business? They looked over at the broken picture frame on the bookcase next to them._

Shit.

_Now Mom was going to come in here, see what happened, and get mad because not only did they break the picture, afterwards they-_

_“Chara?”_

_They froze at the sound of her voice._

_“Chara, my child, Asriel says that you’re hurt, what’s…”_

_Asriel entered the room first, tugging a frowning Mom behind him._

_“It’s_ nothing _,” they said, giving a pointed glare to Asriel, who jumped and ran back out of the room._

_“Chara, that’s not how we treat our siblings,” she spoke soothingly. She sat down on the bed and took their right hand. “What’s going on?”_

_They couldn’t resist that loving look. They couldn’t deny the care she clearly had for them. Shaking now, they showed her the cuts they had made in their left arm._

_“Oh! Sweetheart…”_

_She examined the cuts closer before moving to the closet and getting the first aid kit. She brought the box back to the bed, and gently started to clean and bandage the wounds. She worked with a strange, sad smile on her face._

_“Can you tell me what you used this time?”_

_They sniffled, and used their good arm to point back to the broken picture frame. She stopped her work for a moment to see what had happened._

_“Oh, no, what a mess!”_

_They reflexively flinched, moving as far away from her as possible while still staying on the bed. Mom noticed this, and sat back down. She brought a paw to their face._

_“I’m not mad at you, Chara. I promise. All I want is for you to feel like you don’t need to do this to yourself. I want you to feel happy and loved, my child.”_

_They still seemed unconvinced._

_“It’s alright. I’m not upset.”_

_She returned to bandaging the wounds._

  
*****

  
, stands just over Chara’s head, feet dangling in their face.

You don’t care about how unsettled you are right now. You don’t care about how you can see pieces of specific monsters making up this thing. You don’t even care that all you know about it right now is ’,’.

All you care about is how hard Chara is struggling to escape whatever grip this thing has them in. After everything that they just learned about their brother, and all of the scary things , is making them do and say, they must be more than terrified right now.

God, you didn’t even know spirit _could be_ possessed.

“You pick on , . It seemed effective,” Chara says. You search their eyes for any sign of recognition, but don’t find any. You avoid all of the thing’s attacks this turn, while noting that its bullets somehow seem to be telling the story of someone under strong mind control. Is it supposed to be an illustration of what they’re doing to Chara?

Using your ACT menu, you pray for safety.

“Reaper Bird seems to remember something.”

Your next turn you spare it, and it folds in on itself, leaving Chara on their knees, gasping for air.

“I can’t do this again,” they say. “Frisk, I can’t…I’m too…”

“I know,” you say, “I’m trying.” That’s a bad excuse, but you really are. The only way the two of you can get out of here is if you find all the keys to the main door, but if these Amalgamations keep appearing and doing this to them…

“I’m sorry,” you say, trying to sound comforting, “I swear I’m hurrying.”

“How many more are there?”

“I don’t know, Chara.”

They take a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m so sorry I ever even thought of doing that to you.”

“It’s alright. I’m not upset.”

They wince, and grab at their left arm.

“Did I-”

“It’s fine,” they say. Their eyes are screwed shut, and they seem to be concentrating on something in their mind. “It’s fine,” they repeat, a little softer this time. “I remembered something during the battle. That’s all.”

You pull them up, and continue on.

Just what is happening around here?

  
*****

  
_They ran._

_They ran._

_To where? Who knew. Just away from there._

_They were running away._

_The mountain loomed overhead, a striking view against the colors of sunset. They thought it would be a good place to hide. Or–well, maybe not hide. Maybe whatever legends said was in there would take their life and rid them from their pain._

_Okay._

_They ran._

_They reached a massive hole right at the base of the mountain. Vines crawled wildly up the nearby trees and rocks. Roots and even more vines cracked the ground beneath them._

_The wind whipped their hair up behind them, making it more unkempt and knotted than it already was._

_Perhaps it was just their imagination, but they heard voices ringing in the distance. They started running forward before they knew what they were doing, tripped on a vine, and fell, fell, fell-_

_Death was more welcoming than they’d imagined. The silent blackness around them seemed to last forever, and even if that blackness was all death was, they could be okay with that._

_Bliss was interrupted by shooting pain. A single, small voice came closer to them._

_“Oh, you’ve fallen down, haven’t you?”_

Ah _–more pain. They couldn’t breathe either, even as the unfamiliar creature helped them up._

Come on _, they heard someone say,_ breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe–

*****

  
You pull the still recuperating Chara into a nearby room, praying that there aren’t any Amalgamates inside. There appears to be some sort of video library, with an ancient television and entertainment center in the middle of the room. Is this where Alphys watches her Anime? You think it would be hard for her to relax down here.

You try and pull Chara up, and you realize that they’re having trouble breathing.

“Come on,” you moan, “Breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe–”

Their eyes refocus, and you hear them attempting to follow your direction.

“I’m so sorry,” you say, “I had no idea that the SAVE point would be one of them, I’m so sorry, Chara.”

They blink a few times, not saying anything. You glance up at the shelves of tapes and decide to look at a few while they get their bearings back.

“I forgive you,” they finally say, though it’s faint.

At your eye level, the first thing you see are all of the VHSes starting with R. There’s the _R.O.D_ movie, several seasons of _Ranma ½,_ _Rebuild of Evangelion_ …none of these interest you. When on your way to the other shelf, you notice a few select tapes sitting by the television. You pick up the tape labeled “1”, and decide to put it in the nearby VHS player. It appears Alphys has the common courtesy to rewind the video when she’s done watching it, and you’re glad; loud static would probably disturb Chara.

No visuals appear on the screen, but you close your eyes and pay rapt attention to the audio. Chara finds the strength to get up and listen with you.

“Mom?”

It’s all they say as the video ends and you feed the next tape into the player.

Chara suddenly turns around.

“Is it another Amalgamate?” you ask.

Chara frowns up at the ceiling near the door. “I guess not. But I thought we had company for a minute.” Their head tilts a little.

_“Okay, Chara, are you ready? Do your creepy face!”_

“What?” the two of you say in unison.

_“AHHHHH! Hee hee hee!”_

“What?” Chara says again. They close their eyes and listen to the audio. By the time the tape ends, their hand is hovering close to the glass screen. “Asriel,” they whisper.

They remain like this as you put in the next VHS.

_“When we tried to make butterscotch pie for Dad, right? The recipe asked for cups of butter…but we accidentally put in buttercups instead.”_

Chara shudders a little.

You’re puzzled. What does this have to do with anything?

_“Yeah! Those flowers got him really sick.”_

Asriel’s voice gets less and less upbeat as the audio continues, until it ends on an ominous note. You play the next tape, and you notice Chara’s starting to inch away from the television.

_“I…I don’t like this idea, Chara.”_

Chara’s response in the recording is muffled, but you can still hear their biting tone.

_“Wh…what? N-no, I’m not…”_

Their voice is sharp and judgmental.

_“…big kids don’t cry.”_

“Turn it off,” the present Chara says, backing away from the television, “I don’t want to hear this.” They return to staring up at the ceiling.

Once the audio finishes, you meet them.

“Chara,” you begin slowly, “Chara, how did you die?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“But Chara-”

“I said I DON’T-” they whip around to meet you, fire burning in their eyes. When they realize how harsh they’re being, it dies a little.

“-want…to…talk…”

They bite their lip in some feeble way to hold in their emotion.

“Chara,” you repeat, hoping it will prompt them to answer your question.

They clutch at their arms. “Do you remember the things I said when you fought me?”

You say nothing, allowing them to continue.

“One of the things I said was that ‘I never wanted to live’. Frisk…that’s-that’s true.”

They gulp.

“I didn’t know what to do. I had run away from my surface life and into the arms of Toriel and Asgore and Asriel. It…it wasn’t what I was expecting when I came down here, but it was something. I was really happy for a while, but soon enough, the numbness and despair from what happened to me started to sink in again, and I just didn’t know what to do. Mom and Dad always talked about the extraordinary destinies that Asriel and I shared, and that we were the future of everything, so I made a plan.”

They motion to the television. “Asriel helped me with it. I was going to eat the buttercups from the garden and die, he was going to take my SOUL to the surface, collect enough human SOULs to break the Barrier, and free everyone. It was the perfect ending,” they say through clenched teeth, “But he had to ruin it by being merciful. I always thought he was too kind for his own good, but that was the stupidest possible thing-”

“Chara, Chara, calm down,” you say, putting a hand on their shoulder and miming deep breaths. It seems to make them tense up more.

“When I died, Dad had a human shaped coffin made for me. I guess Mom thought it was cruel, because she stole me away and buried me in the Ruins. I think I’ve figured out the way I was brought back, from reading the signs in here. It must have been your Determination, Frisk. Some of it mingled with what was left of my SOUL and brought me back, though incomplete. And look–all the Amalgamates are monsters that were artificially given Determination then lost their physical forms and melted into big, creepy spirits. If I were a monster, I probably would have melted into one too, but because I’m the leftovers of a human, all they can do is possess me and I can possess you in return.”

Chara looks away from you. “Determination can affect people in all different ways, I guess. It depends on if they’re human or monster, living or non-living.” They stop, and take a few deep breaths before continuing. “I never wanted to live, and I never wanted to be brought back to life. I didn’t know what to do. But, when we RESET for the first time and woke back up in the Ruins, I realized that your experiences and ambivalence towards killing carried over through every RESET, even if you didn’t know it. If I could just wear you down enough, I could use your body to gain every LV possible and free myself from this world again… even if it meant becoming that Angel thing and taking everything else with me.”

They seem worn out, and they should be; that was a lot of heavy information.

“See, Frisk? Even now, in this Pacifist Run, I haven’t really changed. I’m still mean. I’m still suicidal. Obviously part of me still thinks that MERCY is a stupid thing. I haven’t really changed at all.”

You hold their hand, and glance back at the television. When you return your look to them, they’re using their free hand to pick at the loose threads on their sweater.

“I don’t think that’s true,” you say, squeezing their hand tighter. They look at you with watery, questioning eyes.

“I want to let you know that you’ve changed a lot, Chara. When I met you, you were a murderous, rude, scary person, but now look at you! You can admit when you’re wrong more, I know you can accept when MERCY is the correct choice, and you have so much more empathy than you used to. You are changing, Chara. You’re doing the right things and fixing your mistakes.”

You let yourself smile. “You’re not perfect, no one is, but you’re growing.” You answer the question present on their face before they ask it. “Yes. I mean it.”

You wonder if it’s a good idea to tell them this, but you decide to do it anyway. “I…I think we started out really similar, Chara. Coming down here, I mean. I wasn’t planning to survive my fall into Mount Ebott either.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. But hey, look where we both are! We’re well on our way to saving your brother, maybe even the whole world. We’ve changed a lot, Chara, and our choices have changed too.”

They actually smile back.

“Thank you,” they say. “Thank you.”

“Are you feeling better?”

They laugh, and wipe tears from their eyes. “A little, I guess. I really don’t want to bump into another Amalgamate though.”

You laugh too. “I think that’s the understatement of the century. Don’t worry, I’ll be with you. I’ll try and go as fast as I can through here so we can get you away and safe, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Are you ready to save the world for real this time?”

“Yeah. I’m ready.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5n2PFLlbpzw


	13. A S R I E L

“I can’t believe you’re all so STUPID. ALL OF YOUR SOULS ARE MINE!!!”

The light that Flowey emits almost blinds you. You and Chara both shield your eyes against the brightness before your surroundings turn black again, even darker than before. Your instincts tell you that you’re still in the battle system, even if you can’t see any buttons or stats.

Chara gasps a little.

Someone you’ve never seen before stands in front of you. At first he’s completely motionless, but little by little he starts to move his paws, shake his head, and marvel at his body.

“Finally. I was so tired of being a flower.”

He turns. Chara stares, their mouth a little agape.

The boy opens his eyes.

“Howdy! Chara, are you there? It’s me, your best friend.”

In another, shorter flash of light, he transforms.

“ **ASRIEL.** ”

“It’s the end,” they say firmly.

You nod, and hold on to your hopes. You reduce how much DAMAGE you’ll take this turn.

Asriel does something with his magic, and the darkness around you explodes into a galaxy of color. He flies all around the arena, looking for an opening to attack.

You think about why you’re here now…you feel the empty spaces in your inventory get smaller and smaller.

Asriel summons some of the stars floating around you to fly towards your SOUL. You can dodge most of them easily, except for the last row.

You investigate your inventory to see what the “Dream” command did, and find several small glowing stars of your own.

One of them smells like donuts.

One is like tea.

One is like cheap hot dogs.

One smells like freshly baked pie.

You carefully bite one, and it maxes your HP.

Chara nudges you. “Asriel’s charging ‘SHOCKER BREAKER.’”

“How do you know that?” you whisper.

They shake their head and go back to focusing on the fight.

“ **You know,** ” Asriel begins in an older voice, “ **I don’t care about destroying this world anymore.** ”

A rainbow colored lightning bolt strikes your SOUL, and you jerk out of the way to avoid the others that follow it.

You eat another Last Dream. It melts in your mouth and becomes Undyne’s tea, just how you remember it. Your HP is maxed out again.

“ **After I defeat you and gain total control over the timeline…I just want to RESET everything.** ”

The next turn, you’re knocked out by the swing of a blade, and you can’t summon the will to hold on. Dying has never felt like this in the past. Darkness envelops you like usual, but you can’t escape it. Any shred of hope or Determination leaves your body. Your SOUL trembles in fear; even it knows it can’t survive under his power.

“No you _don’t!!_ ”

You’re barely able to open your eyes at the sound of the voice, but you see a hand shoot towards you. It grabs a fistful of your sweater and pulls you out of this void of despair and back into the battle.

“But it refused.”

You blink, and your vision is clear again. You’re back at the beginning with Chara and Asriel. You look at Chara, and they give you a slight grin. The hand holding your sweater collar makes its way down to your right hand, and holds it with an iron grip.

You start again.

Asriel seems to be aware of your little ‘cheating death’ stunt, and continues his monologue.

“ **All your progress…everyone’s memories. I’ll bring them all back to zero!** ”

He uses his lightning attack again, but this time you’re much more prepared.

The fight continues on in this manner. There are a few more times where you’re almost pulled to the brink, but every single time Chara lends their strength to help pull you back up. They must be almost as determined as you are. All throughout the battle they have a little smirk on their face, which makes you smile in return.

“Asriel readies 'HYPER GONER’.”

“Have we seen that one yet?”

“I…don’t think so?”

“ **Now, ENOUGH messing around!** ” Asriel says in a gleeful voice, “ **It’s time to purge this timeline once and for all!** ”

Everything disappears, and a strange beast skull appears in the center of the fight. The arena around you ripples and twists, and you can feel your SOUL being pulled towards the gaping mouth of the thing.

In the heat of battle, trying to remain stable, you somehow notice that the attack looks kind of like the DT Extraction machine in Alphys’ True Lab.

Just when you think that you can’t survive in the vacuum anymore, Asriel and the normal battle are back.

“ **…even after that attack, you’re still standing in my way…? Wow…you really ARE something special.** ”

He laughs.

“ **But don’t get cocky. Up until now, I’ve only been using a fraction of my REAL power! Let’s see what good your DETERMINATION is against THIS!!** ”

Asriel transforms for the second time, shifting and changing until he reappears as a strange angelic creature.

“ASRIEL blocks the way!” Chara shouts above the roaring sound of the whole world ending. Your hand is still on the ACT button, but try as you may, you can’t move it.

You struggle. Can’t move your body, and apparently, neither can Chara.

“ **Urah ha ha ha…behold my TRUE power!** ”

You can still move your SOUL, though it’s a vain effort considering the amount of rockets Asriel is throwing at you.

Can’t move your body.

Asriel talks, but you can’t pay attention.

Can’t move your body.

Despite Asriel’s clear power over the two of you, you’re still able to refuse death, though it’s getting difficult to pull off.

Can’t move your body. You’re starting to feel numb.

Could this really be the end?

Can’t move your body.

Nothing happens.

You struggle…nothing happens.

You try to reach your SAVE file. Nothing happens.

You try again to reach your SAVE file. Nothing happens.

Seems SAVING the game really is impossible.

Asriel holds you tight in his invisible grip.

……

But…

Maybe, with what little power you have…

…you can SAVE something else.

Your ACT button pulses and glows. You grip Chara’s hand tighter.

Some unseen force, perhaps a God, Goddess, or maybe some benevolent other party who sees your struggle, transforms your ACT menu into a SAVE menu. Still not able to move your body, something allows you to open it with your mind.

There are no actions you can take, no commands to follow inside, but a list of names.

Names that you can use your new-found power to call.

Being the first on the list, you call Undyne’s name. She appears before you, her face obscured by a blocky cloud.

“The Lost Soul appears.”

In this phase of the battle you can move again, and it feels good to swing your arms and push buttons. In your ACT menu are four specific commands that cater to Undyne. You struggle to bring her back.

You tap the Lost Soul lightly.

You ask the Lost Soul to teach you how to cook.

You give the Lost Soul a big smile, like you remember she likes to do. In an instant the cloud is gone, and she is smiling and back to normal.

You continue down the names on the list, waking each one up as you go along. You never knew that the bonds you made could be such a powerful force against destruction. You’re not alone in SAVING them either; when two Lost Souls appear on the battlefield, you and Chara both work to SAVE them.

They hug a Lost Soul and tell her that they’re going to see her again.

You tell a pair of Lost Souls a bad pun about skeletons. One seems to love it…but the other Lost Soul seems to hate it.

Begrudgingly, they ask a Lost Soul what her favorite cartoon is.

“I feel your friends’ SOULS resonating within Asriel!” Chara shouts when all is said and done. You give them a little confused look, and they mumble, “Our friends.” They’re beaming through their slight embarrassment.

You feel accomplished, even though Asriel’s final form is still there and hellbent on finishing you off. Your SAVE menu is still in use even though everyone has been rescued.

You glance at Chara, and cautiously open it.

All it says is 'Someone Else’.

It seems that there’s still one last person that needs to be saved.

“But who…?” Chara whispers.

……

Suddenly, you realize.

You reach out and you call their name.

“ **Huh? What are you doing…!?** ” Asriel says, in disbelief.

You call Asriel’s name.

“ **Wh…what did you do? What’s this feeling…? What’s happening to me?** ”

Chara gives you a squeeze.

“ **No! NO! I don’t need ANYONE!** ”

Asriel hits you with as many rockets as he can, but you know you won’t be going down any time soon.

You call Asriel’s name, and this time Chara joins in.

He objects, and the rockets get worse and worse.

You both call…

A measly few rockets.

You both call….

Then familiar fire attacks.

You both call…

His flames always miss their target.

“ **I’m not ready for this to end. I’m not ready for you to leave.** ”

Chara doesn’t seem to notice the tears that are running down their pink cheeks.

 **“I’m not ready to say goodbye to s** omeone like you again.”

You both call…

“SO please…STOP doing this…”

You both call…

“AND JUST LET ME WIN!!!”

Asriel utilizes his biggest attack yet. You and Chara repeat his name like a mantra.

“STOP IT! STOP IT NOW!!!”

You hold on. Even at a fraction of your HP, you both call…

“Chara…”

You both call…

“I’m so alone, Chara…”

You both call…

“I’m so afraid, Chara…”

……

“Chara, I…I…”

When the battle closes, a young goat creature stands before you.

Asriel Dreemurr stands before you.

Chara steps forward, releasing your hand.

“I’m so sorry,” Asriel says, wiping the tears from his eyes, “I always was a crybaby, wasn’t I, Chara?”

They laugh, and nod. He seems to respond in the same way.

But his eyes meet yours.

“…I know. You’re not actually Chara, are you? Chara’s been gone for a long time.”

“I’m right here,” they say as Asriel walks past them.

He makes a face like he’s going to cry again, but doesn’t. “Um…what…what IS your name?” he asks you.

You smile, and his face lights up in response. It appears that only the Dreemurr siblings care about your true identity.

“Frisk.”

“'Frisk’? That’s…a nice name.”

“I’m right here,” you barely hear Chara say.

The black void (distinctly reminiscent of what lies beyond the Barrier in Neutral runs, you realize) is a warm and welcoming place when Asriel’s in it. His shy smile seems to light up even the darkest of places.

“Frisk…I…I understand if you can’t forgive me. I understand if you hate me.”

“No,” you and Chara both start before he cuts you off.

“I acted so strange and horrible. I _hurt_ you. I hurt so many people.”

Chara nods again, subtly. Their tears are back.

“Friends, family, bystanders…there’s no excuse for what I’ve done.”

He turns a little away from you.

You tell Asriel that you forgive him.

“Wh…what? Frisk, come on. You’re…you’re going to make me cry again…”

……

……..

Something lifts Asriel up as he breaks the Barrier, an invisible force. The SOULS all swirl around him, creating a fierce wind that whips your hair up.

The Barrier snaps in half, and breaks.

Asriel is put on the ground, and you and Chara rush to him. They can’t touch him (much to their dismay) but you’re able to help him stand again.

“Frisk…I have to go now. Without the power of everyone’s SOULS…I can’t keep maintaining this form. In a little while, I’ll turn back into a flower.”

He looks guilty and sad again.

“I’ll stop being 'myself’. I’ll stop being able to feel love again. So…Frisk.”

Chara returns to your side.

“It’s best if you just forget about me, ok? Just go be with the people who love you.”

You can feel something trying to tug you backwards, pull you away from this moment, and you start to panic.

“Can I…?” Chara starts to ask, but their words soon fail them. Slowly, you nod in response, and let them take over for the last time.

Chara walks your body forward. No menace, no shambling, just a normal walk. They put their arms around Asriel, and stroke his back. Something tells you that this is a familiar and comforting movement to them.

It’s not long before Asriel hugs them in return.

“Ha…ha…I don’t want to let go…”

  
*****

  
The first thing you see when you wake up is Chara. Their hair falls in your face, and you see the concern etched into their features. The second thing you see are the silhouettes of your friends and caretakers, all relieved that you’re alive. After a minute Chara moves, and you’re able to stand up and greet everyone. You’re pleasantly surprised that they all know your name.

One by one, they say their piece, and you and Chara are left to explore the rest of the Underground and spread the news of the Barrier’s destruction.

The two of you walk along and discuss in between giving greetings to passersby.

“Are we going anywhere specific?” asks Chara as you wave goodbye to an elated lion creature.

You stop and think. “Shouldn’t we go back to your grave and see if you can return to death?”

“Do you think that would work?”

“I don’t know, but it’s worth a try, isn’t it?”

The two of you walk past Muffet, give her a wave, and continue your conversation once out of earshot.

“If the purpose of your…um…'resurrection’, was to grow past everything that happened before this, as well as help save the world, I think you did it. So maybe there’s a way now for you to get back to your grave.”

They nod. “Right. Heh, I’m…I feel kind of…proud, I guess? Proud of myself? That’s a really weird feeling.”

You nudge them a bit, smiling. “I bet it feels good, though.”

“Yeah. It does, Frisk.”

You continue on through the underground, and when you finally reach the now opened Ruins, Chara runs ahead. You hope that you won’t see them there when you get to your destination.

After everything, they deserve their rest.

However, when you reach the bed of golden flowers past Toriel’s house, you not only see them standing stock still, but their brother kneeling in the small patch of sunlight that shines down onto their grave.

“Asriel?” you ask. You can’t believe he’s still here.

He smiles when he sees you, but it grows faint. It’s reduced to a shy, melancholy look by the time you sit down where he’s gestured.

Surprisingly, Asriel has a lot more to say to you. You listen intently to his little pieces of wisdom, hanging on every word he says. Chara stands near the two of you, enough to listen and sometimes make a comment, but far enough away so they hope you won’t see their jealousy.

“I don’t know why I ever acted like you were the same person,” Asriel says, playing with his paws. “Maybe…the truth is…Chara wasn’t really the greatest person. While, Frisk…you’re the type of friend I wish I always had.”

Chara outright leaves the room at this.

“Chara, wait-”

“What?” Asriel says, pulling your attention back to him. While he doesn’t look as shocked as you might think, surprise is still on his face, mixed with hints of relief.

You can’t possibly answer him. Instead, you stand up and run out of the room.

You see Chara standing where Flowey has stood so many times, their back turned to you. You walk up to meet them.

“Don’t,” they say, “I deserve it.”

“Chara,” you begin, not knowing how to continue.

“I loved him. I loved him, but there were times when I was awful to him, or times when I was too focused on my own problems to show that love.”

“But you’re different now. You may have deserved it then, but now-”

“He doesn’t know me 'now’, Frisk. He only knows the me from back then and the me from the Genocide run. I deserve it, Frisk. Whether,” they sigh, “Whether I like it or not. And part of me’s ok with that because how could he know that I’m different, but then again, I…I wish he did.”

They give a little smile. “Don’t worry about me. It doesn’t really matter anyway, does it? He’s going to turn soulless again, and it won’t matter. It’s obvious that I can’t rest any time soon, so I’ll spend my time watching over him. It’s all I can do now, and even if he never knows what I’ve been through…I can still show my love for him like that. That can make up for everything I did.”

You hear a soft padding behind you. Asriel peeks into the large room, and looks at you in a funny way.

“He wants you to go back,” Chara fills in. You shoot them a subtly quizzical look (you don’t want to talk to them with him around). They laugh. “I lived with him for two years, Frisk, I can read his expressions.” They nudge you a tad. “Go!”

You refocus your attention on the little boy at the end of the room, and walk back with him to the flower patch.

  
*****

  
After you give Asriel a tearful goodbye and collect Chara from the neighboring room, you return to the place where you woke up. Your friends are all sitting around trading stories and drinking tea when you come back, and you’re able to join in their conversation before they decide that it’s time to leave. You and Chara see them through the door to the outside world before you follow. You’re excited to see the surface again, but somehow things don’t feel real. It’s almost like you forgot that this life existed.

“Chara, are you ready? I know you haven’t seen this world in decades, so you’ve got to be…excited…”

They don’t seem excited at all, as a matter of fact.

“Chara? Are you coming?”

They stand back from the door. You reach out your hand, but they don’t do anything.

“I can’t…leave, Frisk. I told you, remember? I’m staying with him.”

“But what about our connection?”

“It’s gone. Wherever Asriel did to break the Barrier must have broken whatever was between us as well.”

You tilt your head. “So…why didn’t you go straight to your grave after I woke up?”

“I….Frisk, I wanted to stay with you.”

“Then come with me,” you implore. “If we’re not tied together but you’re still here, you can stay with us wherever we go! I’ll tell Alphys and Mom about you, we can fix you-”

“No.”

You look at them, and they stare at the lone patch of grass underneath them.

“Chara, please, listen-”

“Look, I don’t belong out there, Frisk, and I haven’t for a long time. Especially not around your friends, your…your mom.”

You start to say something, but they cut you off.

“Let me finish. I can’t leave Asriel alone, now that he’s back. I can’t.” They jab a trembling finger behind them. “He’s back there, and he’s hurting, and he’s not going to be himself for very long. I need to be help somehow, even if he doesn’t know it. Besides, all those people out there? I murdered them, Frisk. All of them. And, surprisingly, at least one of them remembers it. If you brought me out there, and convinced them that I was real and that I was the voice in your head telling you to do awful things, not to mention mom and dad’s reaction to knowing I’m still alive somehow…it’s not right. This is your happy ending. Not mine.”

You can’t say anything. They’re right, you know, but there has to be a way…

“Please, Frisk. You need to leave.”

They’re tearing up, but nothing’s breaking the surface. You can tell that they’re trying to keep the tears in.

Just like Asriel. Why can’t you SAVE them too?

An idea pops into your head. You don’t know if it would work, but you think it’s a possibility.

As you get closer to them, they snap their head up to meet your gaze. You give them a tight farewell hug, just like you did their brother.

“C'mon, don’t you get a little tired of this?” They give a self depreciating half sob half chuckle. “Don’t you have anything better to do?”

You aren’t listening to them. You hug as tight as you possibly can, focus your thoughts, and a surge of warmth and power rushes through you like adrenaline.

But you know that it’s not adrenaline.

You take this power, this force, this feeling, and try to imbue Chara with as much of it as you can. Before you know it, the hands around your back feel just a bit more real, a bit more solid. Chara seems to notice this too, and releases you so they can look at themselves.

“What,” they say, sniffling, “What did you do?”

You smile through the tears rapidly forming in your own eyes.

“You’re more Determined, Chara.”

“No,” they say, a hint of a smile starting to flicker onto their face. “You didn’t-”

“I did.”

They pat themselves down. “So am I physical now?”

“I don’t think so? I think you would need an actual body for that. You look like you’re about as physical as Asriel is right now.”

“So…can I…communicate with him?”

“I think so.”

They look at their hands again, and actually laugh.

“What do I say?”

You laugh too. “Say nothing.”

They give you a teasing look. You shrug, and glance over at the doorway behind you.

“They’re waiting.”

“Yeah,” Chara says, still giggling a bit, “I have someone waiting too.”

You walk to the door and wave. You step through, and your vision is filled with white…

But.

But, for the first time, it doesn’t go dark.

You’re standing on rough rock. Something’s blinding you, hurting you, and you realize that it’s the first time you’ve seen the sun in what feels like years. Come to think, with how long the time loop lasted, it probably was.

You stagger forward, and Toriel’s paw finds your hand.

“There you are,” she says, and the two of you line up with the rest of your friends at the edge of the cliff.

The sunset is beautiful, so much more than you remember. You promise to never, ever take it for granted again. The air is fresh and smells like pine and flowers and rain. You lean into Toriel as you breathe it all in.

It feels strange to not have Chara pulling on your physical and mental states, but while you miss them, it’s a freeing feeling too.

Your friends chat around you, but you aren’t listening.

You did it.

You made it.

You found the best possible ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The epilogue will be out Saturday, 5/7/16. Stay tuned!


	14. Epilogue (It's Still You)

_Flowey glared._

_He glared at the crumbly, rocky soil beneath him. He glared at the archway that a regretful child had walked through what felt like only minutes ago. He glared at the nearby flowers. He wanted to glare through the ground to where the body of his dead best friend lay._

_He made a unhappy little noise, and threw a nearby pebble across the small cavern._

_It just wasn’t_ fair.

_It was unfair that everyone got to leave and be happy on the surface, and that stupid Frisk got to live with his stupid parents. What was there for him? After literally breaking the Barrier for everyone? After giving Frisk the glory they deserved?_

_Nothing._

_There he was, still in a soulless form, still unloved, still unrewarded, and still-_

_“Boo!”_

_“AHHHHH!!!”_

_Flowey cringed, startled. “Who’s there?! What do you want?”_

_No response. He slowly opened his eyes and met the familiar face of someone he thought was long dead._

_“Chara?”_

_Chara started laughing. “Well duh it’s me, who else could give you a scare like that?” They laughed harder._

_There should have been a rush of relief. He should have been in happy tears, he should’ve let Chara embrace him and all would have been well._

_That’s not what happened._

_After the initial shock was over and he had taken everything in, Flowey only rolled his eyes._

_“Well, whoopdeedoo. The sibling whose plan got me killed is back, what a surprise.”_

_Chara looked hurt. “You’re not surprised? Or even happy to see me?”_

_He scoffed. “Of course I’m not, you idiot. I can’t feel anything, and besides, it was pretty obvious that you had come back somehow. I seriously doubted it was Frisk doing all that murdering a couple runs ago.” He gave them a skeptical, almost disgusted look. “But how come you’re not a part of them anymore?”_

_Chara responded with a puckish grin. “They gave me some of their Determination. Said they wouldn’t need it on the surface.”_

_“Hmph. That sounds like them.”_

_They spent time studying each other’s expressions and new forms. Chara switched from sitting with their legs crossed to laying on their stomach._

_“It’s really nice to see you again, Asriel.”_

_Flowey shot a look up at them._

_“Don’t call me that.”_

_“How did you turn into a flower again anyway?”_

_“It was a long, painful process, and I don’t think you or anyone else would want to hear the gruesome details of my transformation. Is that alright?”_

_They sighed dramatically. “Fine.”_

_Flowey was glad for the silence, until-_

_“Asriel,” Chara started again._

_Flowey grumbled, but didn’t say anything about the use of his real name this time. “What?”_

_“What did you do with your locket?”_

_He looked up, met Chara’s eyes, and for once didn’t look annoyed or angry or bitter in any way._

_“My locket?”_

_“Mmmhmm. Weren’t you wearing it when you left with my body for the surface?”_

_Flowey continued his strange, neutral look before popping underground._

_“Wha, Asriel, I-”_

_Chara stood up, and put their hands on their hips._

_Flowey popped up again. Somehow, wrapped on the stem just under his big petals and laying on his leaves, was Asriel’s locket._

_Chara pulled their matching one out of their sweater. “I looked everywhere for that!” they said, laughing a little, “Where were you hiding it?”_

_“Mom’s spare room.” Flowey suddenly looked wistful. “I spend a lot of time there. It feels like ours, in the castle, it’s…” he lapsed back into a frown. “It’s the only place where I can feel something, even a little.”_

_“Oh. I looked in the castle room.”_

_“I know that, I heard you in there as you were_ ignoring _me.”_

_Chara frowned in return. “I’m sorry, Asriel.”_

_“No, you genocidal maniac, I don’t want your apologies. You rarely ever gave them to me when we were kids, and you shouldn’t think that giving them now will make up for anything.”_

_Chara crawled away from him a little. “Fine. I guess you don’t want all this fixed then, do you?”_

_Flowey’s eyes got big. “What? What fix?”_

_Chara’s grin returned. “A mostly physical form isn’t the only thing Frisk’s Determination gave me.”_

_“No…”_

_“That’s right. I can RESET everything, Asriel. Both of us, we could try again. I could pull Frisk back down here, and we could find a way to really save you-”_

_“NO,” Flowey said firmly. “Everything’s peaceful. Everyone’s happy. Mom and Dad are happy. So don’t. Let them live their lives. And if you don’t want to do it for them, do it for Frisk, I know they meant a lot to you. Do it for me. I…I don’t think I could do it all again. Not after that.”_

_Chara said nothing._

_“Don’t, Chara.”_

_Chara shut their mouth. “Alright. If this is what you want. I guess I was getting tired of the time loop thing too.”_

_Flowey exhaled a little. “What now?” he asked, quiet._

_“I don’t know,” Chara said, “But I want to spend my time with you.”_

_“What about the-”_

_“Are you kidding? I murdered them. Repeatedly. They wouldn’t want me.” Chara sighed, and laid down. “Even if I’ve changed.” Then, quieter- “I have.”_

_The two siblings, in very different positions and mindsets now, were reunited. They both sat in the flowers and looked through the broken cavern ceiling, up at the blue sky high above them._

_“I loved you,” Flowey eventually said, in a voice that could almost be described as ‘tender’. “I hope that makes you feel better.”_

_Chara touched one of his leaves._

_“I love you too, Asriel.”_

  
*****

  
Once again, the sunset blinds you as you exit the underground. You go out the way you came in this time, and thankfully your rope holds. Being cobbled together of different pieces and lengths and materials of fabric and rope, you’re surprised (and glad) it does.

Unlike the first time you came here, you’d like to go on living.

The air is thankfully cool on your skin, a breeze stirring the orange leaved trees around you. You love this time of year, and not just because of the various holidays and traditions that surround it; despite being a season about loss and change, the monster community sees it as a time of hope and renewal in the face of fear and adversity. It’s probably why you gathered the courage to go back and check today of all days.

When you make it out of the chasm you pull up your rope, tuck it in your backpack, and exit the small cave at the base of Mount Ebott.

The sunlight is quickly leaving, so you pull out your flashlight (conveniently nestled in a mesh cup holder), flick it on, and continue walking through the dense forest. You used an old hiking trail to get here, the same one you followed when you first fell into the underground, and when you came here earlier in the day. You hope that mom was too busy with her after school conferences to focus on making sure you got home in a timely fashion. You know that Toriel (or any of your friends) wouldn’t hurt you or otherwise harshly punish you for doing something like this, but she would be worried sick, and that makes you feel guilty more than anything.

You’re about a mile down the three mile trail when you hear something near you creak loudly.

You whirl around, heart beating; your flashlight beam illuminates nothing but trees.

You take a moment to breathe, and decide that you better run part of the way home. You know that, logically, there’s nothing to be scared of in these woods. If it were a monster wandering around they would undoubtedly recognize and maybe even help you, and if it’s a human…well, that’s another matter entirely.

You try to tell yourself that everything will be fine–it’s highly probable that you will make it home safe, endure a bit of chastisement from your mother, then go to bed. It’ll be just _fine_ , if you can–

You suddenly notice that there’s a light in the area that isn’t coming from your flashlight.

Something touches your shoulder.

You scream.

Something else touches your opposite arm, and the absolute worst goes through your mind. It could be an unfamiliar human, it could be a bully from school (though you don’t know why they would be out in the woods at night), it could somehow be a vine, one of Flowey’s-

“woah, hey, hey, frisk. calm down.”

You stop screaming but cave in on yourself, your knees giving out, and you fall to the crunchy leaves on the ground.

“are you okay, kiddo?”

Is…is that…?

“i mean…i’ll be honest, i thought spooking you sounded pretty fun, but i didn’t know you’d react like that.”

It’s Sans. He circles around you, appearing in your field of vision. The blue light in his eye fades, and he takes his hands out of his coat pockets to help pull you up. “seriously, are you okay?”

You nod, wiping your eyes a little. You shift your backpack’s weight a little bit.

“alright, well, uh, i’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

You take a deep breath, and realize that your hands are empty.

“Where are they?” you ask, crouching down and patting the ground.

“what are you looking for?”

“Um…a pair of necklaces.”

“these?”

You look up and see Sans dangling two golden chains in front of you.

“Yes,” you say as you reach for them, but he pulls them away and tucks them in his pocket. You stand up and start to protest, but he interrupts.

“as soon as we talk for a bit, they’re yours.”

You stand back up, frowning. “What do you want to talk about?”

Sans starts back down the trail, and motions for you to follow him. Once you’re by his side, he still says nothing. He doesn’t even reach out to take your hand, like any of your other friends would if you were walking with them.

The air between the two of you is unusually frigid, and it’s not because of the season.

“your mother was worried,” he says eventually. “pretty gutsy of you to pull a move like that. she wanted to call the police, but i told her that i knew exactly where you were. turns out i was right, huh?”

You make a grunt in the affirmative. More silence follows; Sans is having a difficult time talking tonight.

“why did you go back?”

……

You don’t know how to explain this to him, any of it.

“I was…checking on a friend.”

He laughs. “the flower?”

You’re shocked that he remembers Flowey exists, considering no one else does.

“No. Um…yes? Kinda.”

More awkward, awkward silence.

“do you mind elaborating for me?”

“Why?”

He sighs a little.

“our safety might depend on it, frisk. i know he’s dangerous.”

How does he know any of these things, anyway? You don’t know what to do, what to say.

“It was another friend too,” you mumble.

“cool. who?”

You swallow. “My…uh…'my little friend’.”

“what?”

“You know,” you say, starting to get frustrated, “My friend. You knew they were there, one of the times that we were at the MTT Resort. You called them out, and I freaked out.”

He struggles to remember, then starts laughing. “oh, that? that was a lucky guess.”

Your jaw drops. “Really?”

“heh, yeah. it was just a theory, i didn’t know if that was actually what was going on. i was dead on, huh?”

“I guess.”

“you still didn’t answer my question. who was it? and, come to think, why are they…uh…invisible?”

You don’t know what reaction you’ll get, but you gather the courage to tell him.

“Chara was their name.”

“chara dreemurr?”

“Yes.”

Pause.

“huh. cool.” He draws the word out, like he’s thinking. “so why were they invisible?”

Everything spills out. You don’t know how; maybe it’s the atmosphere, or the apparent fact that you see Sans as a safe person to talk to, but you explain everything that happened to you in the underground, and the significance Chara and Asriel both had in your life. He listens through it all, not saying a word.

“And Sans, while we’re here and I’m telling you all of these things, there’s something I have to talk to you about.”

“hmm?”

“Do you remember fighting me?”

He freezes in his tracks. When you stop to look back at him, he’s still smiling, but something like nervousness bordering on panic resides in his eyes.

“come again?”

“I know you do. I feel like you need to know more about what happened then.”

“i’ll pass.”

“Sans, I have to tell you-”

“welp, uh, what if i told you that i don’t want to know? would you leave me alone?”

“Sans, I’m sorry.”

He comes out of his glazed, panicked state to look you in the eyes.

“It was my fault. I’m the one who started it, anyway. Chara tried to finish it even after I told them that they needed to stop, but I was the one who put the events into motion. It’s my fault, and I’m sorry.”

You feel your face get hot, and all of your muscles tense.

“I’m sorry, Sans. I’m so sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry-”

You’re sobbing. In some vain effort to stop yourself, you rub your eyes hard.

“hey, kid-”

Sans’ cellphone goes off just as he starts to approach you. He pulls it out of his pocket (how big are those things anyway?), and picks up when he sees the number.

“tori. yeah, i’ve got them.”

You hear Toriel’s distressed voice on the other end of the phone, and cry a little harder. You sink to your knees.

“sorry, i know…yes. no, we’re okay, we were talking. i’ll get them home soon. uhhh…yes, that’s them crying.”

You look up at him, afraid that he’s going to out you somehow.

“nah, they just fell. it’s not that bad, i think it’s mostly shock. alright. sure. bye.”

When he hangs up, you’ve stopped crying, but you’re hiccuping. He sits down beside you and seems to want to comfort you, but doesn’t know how. He ends up twirling his phone in his hands.

“look. i forgive you, frisk. even at the time, it was pretty obvious that you weren’t yourself. now i guess i know that was literally what happened. but chara, this,” he forms air quotes, “'friend’ of yours, that’s gonna be a hell of a lot longer. if at all.” He runs a hand over his skull. “i’m sorry i’m not as forgiving as you.”

“It’s okay.”

“kid,” he says, shifting so he’s in front of you instead of on your side, “i want you to know that i’m on your side. i’m you’re friend, okay?”

“I’m never gonna RESET again,” you blurt out, “I swear I’m not.”

“yeah.”

He pulls the necklaces out of his pocket, and hands them to you.

“thanks,” he says, quietly.

You look at the lockets, now all tangled together.

You’re reminded how glad you were to find just these in the flower patch, and nothing else. You initially hadn’t wanted to take them, but something in your head, a familiar and even friendly voice had told you that it was okay. That everything was.

Sans reaches out his hand, and pulls you up. Surprisingly, when you finally start walking again, he doesn’t let go.

“You didn’t deserve any of that. What we did and you remember.”

“you don’t need to worry about me,” he says, shrugging. “this wasn’t really my story.”

“I know. It wasn’t really mine either.”

  
*****

  
As soon as you walk in the house you’re practically assaulted by Toriel, who gives you a hug so tight that you have to catch your breath when she releases you.

“Don’t you ever do that again, Frisk. Oh, I was so worried, I thought I’d-”

She sighs, and kisses your head. “It doesn’t matter. You’re safe, and I hope that both Sans and myself were able to drill some sense into you about running off like this.”

“don’t worry,” he says, smiling at you, “they’re not going to be doing that again.”

His smile feels real.

You brush your teeth, put on a clean pair of pajamas, and prepare for the coming school day. On your desk by your now cleaned out backpack, library books, and completed homework, is a jewelry tree. You don’t have much to put on it (besides a cool ring you won at an arcade and a pair of expensive earrings that you wore for Undyne and Alphys’ wedding), but now you’ve given one more of its many branches a purpose: the twin red and gold lockets now rest on a curvy bough. Even in bed with the lights turned out, you can see them glinting a little in the moonlight. Seeing the necklaces keeps your breathing steady, and you smile a little through your exhaustion. Wherever they wound up, you know that they’re alright.

You’re glad to keep this thought company as you drift into sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to anyone who read this, I appreciate it so much. This was a big deal to me, in a lot of ways, and I feel really good about it. I hope that anyone reading this was able to feel a fraction of what I felt writing it.
> 
> Good night.


End file.
